Over VPCS’s nearly 30-year history, our clients have come to expect a certain something – a level of service, an attention to detail, a human touch – that they might not find anywhere else. Our colleagues and partners have known us for decades by this same reputation. To those of us on the inside, we call this certain something by its name: the Van Pelt Way. Our co-founders, Mark Van Pelt and Mike Van Pelt, are justifiably proud of this company philosophy and how it has helped distinguish us in our industry. They’re also pleased that our deep bench of future VPCS leaders embraces it just as fervently. Here are a few of Mark and Mike’s thoughts on the subject:
Q: How would you describe the Van Pelt Way?
Mark: It’s actually defined in a manual we give to every new employee. In that document, we say that the Van Pelt Way is our “foundational ethos – rooted in integrity, transparency, professionalism and service” – and it’s what sets our company apart. We like to think of it as our secret sauce.
Mike: It’s about doing whatever it takes, which is often about relieving issues for clients in ways that our competitors wouldn’t necessarily think of as part of their duties or contract. It’s when we step up and say, “We’ll take care of it.”
Mark: That’s right. “Whatever it takes” has become our motto.
Q: How did the Van Pelt Way come to be?
Mark: Mike and I have always had this kind of work ethic and we’ve both just developed it over the years. Once we started VPCS, we realized that we had an advantage over our competitors because we came from the general contracting world. That means we don’t just know how to manage construction, but we also know how to build buildings. So that’s part of how the Van Pelt Way emerged because we can step in to handle a wider variety of problems that come up on projects.
Mike: Exactly. In the early days of our company, we realized that clients sometimes struggled with issues during the construction process. And we saw so many of our competitors saying, “Just let ’em struggle.” They didn’t want to go outside the parameters of their contracts. But we knew that if our clients were successful, then we’d be successful. It just became part of our routine to do whatever we could to support our clients’ success. Now it’s second nature for everyone on our team.
Q: Can you share a couple of examples of how you’ve gone above and beyond in service to a client?
Mike: There are hundreds of them. One that always come to mind for me is the time when construction caused a traffic routing pattern at an elementary school to change right before the start of the school year. Parents had been using the same drop-off pattern for decades and we knew the new parking lot and site work might be confusing on the first day of school. So a bunch of us from the VPCS team grabbed flags and put on vests and helped direct traffic. Nowhere in our contract did it say we had to do anything like that, but it just seemed like an easy way to help the district.
Mark: I’ve got another first-day-of-school story. We’d finished a new classroom building at an elementary school and in the early morning hours on that first day, a drain line backed up and flooded the playground. The district called its maintenance team to come deal with it but they weren’t going to be there for hours, which meant possibly delaying the first day of the year at that school. So our project team ran to Home Depot very early in the morning and bought a bunch of brooms and other equipment and cleaned the whole thing up before the start of the school day. It was like it never happened. No other CM or PM in this business would do that.
Mike: How about the time when I went with a client to a rock quarry an hour’s drive from his district to help him pick out a piece of stone that he wanted to use for the front office desk at the new school we were building for him? There I was, picking out rocks because that’s what my client asked me to do. That district ended up with a beautiful desk!
Mark: Or the time when a client from a small district was going on vacation and asked me to sit at her desk while she was gone. She didn’t mean do my PM work from her office at district headquarters; she meant do my job and do her job. Because she didn’t just oversee the facilities department – she was also in charge of food service, transportation, custodial services and a million other things. It was actually a blast; I loved it. And we had that client for more than a decade after that, so it’s the kind of stuff that pays off.
Q: How have you managed to honor the small company ethos as the company has grown?
Mark: We’re really careful about training new people so they understand how we do things; we also have regular all-hands meetings where the whole team comes together to share ideas and stories about how to do the job while also delivering great service. Looking ahead to when Kelli [Van Pelt Jurgenson] and Eric [Van Pelt] take the reins, they’ll continue to cultivate the Van Pelt Way too, and they’ll be surrounded by others we’ve brought on board who are just as committed to it. It’s important that we keep this part of our DNA because that’s what sets us apart and makes us successful.
Mike: It’s true. It’s the only way Mark and I have ever worked; it’s the only way we’ve ever done things since we started VPCS; it’s the only way Kelli and Eric have ever seen things being done. And as new employees come on board, it doesn’t take them long to figure out that we run things differently than other companies. The Van Pelt Way is pretty built in around here.
July 29, 2024