Real Estate and Construction
Clear message
How to grow a company and maintain a consistent vision
By Carolyn LaWell
Smart Business Philadelphia | January 2009
Page 1 of 2
David Adelman president and CEO, Campus Apartments
For David Adelman, the
hardest part of growing his company has been realizing that
he can’t do everything on his
own.
As president and CEO of
Campus Apartments, a national
developer, owner and manager
of student housing, Adelman
has had to learn how to delegate duties to a growing number of employees as the company has grown from about 30
employees six years ago to 470
today.
Whether it’s growing his own
employees to move up through
the ranks or making sure new
hires are a good fit, Adelman
has worked to create a message
of consistency across the company’s offices in 18 states.
Smart Business spoke with
Adelman about how to deliver a
clear message to your employees, even as their numbers
grow.
Find ways to convey a consistent
message to employees. You have
to remember where you come
from and really look in the mirror and say, ‘What kind of message do I want to put out there
with my customers and my
employees?’ Really make sure
of your brand.
Our brand is important. We
want that brand to be consistent
everywhere we go.
Once you’ve found great people, how do you make sure your
vision and your message are
delivered?
As we grew bigger and bigger,
we realized it was important to
really make the people out in
the field understand how we do
things and create a consistent
manner to which all of our operations are conducted.
The main way we do it is
through training. We have annual meetings. We have really
spent a lot of time developing
our middle management, who
go out into the field to deliver
the message.
I do a monthly podcast to all
of the members of the company to let them know what’s
going on, what we’re working
on, just to make them feel
included. It’s really important
that everybody feels connected
to the homefront.
Surround yourself with good people.
There are two ways to find
them. One is to grow them at
home. Take somebody and help
them develop through the ranks.
Growing employees really
starts with training and giving
them the ability to spend time
with you to understand how
they can be better. This may
include sending them to conferences or back to school.
Another is just really understanding when you’re recruiting
what you’re looking for.
Interviewing is about asking
questions that place them in a
situation and understanding
how they would respond.
Beyond being able to identify
somebody’s technical skills, I try
to really understand what kind of
person they are and where their
heart is and what their attitude is.
Somebody who has a good attitude and is a good worker, you
can teach the rest. But you can’t
teach somebody in attitude.
