COO
Hogan Design & Construction, Geneva, Ill. (Chicagoland)
Age: 40
Where We’re Innovating: Our biggest step forward was moving from a lead carpenter system to a project manager system. It’s not for everyone, but it’s best for the way our company is set up. Tim Faller, of Remodelers Advantage, advised me to do it. I found a project manager on Indeed. He was actually a PM for a tech company, but he brought everything to the table that’s needed in that role, and I felt we could train him on the remodeling specifics. He does rely on the other two PMs for help, but he assists them with a number of things including budgets. We bonus our project managers using the budget and customer satisfaction scores as metrics. The bonus has four tiers and tops off at 4% of gross profit.