When I asked Glen Knight the simple question of, “What projects are E.A. Knight Construction most known for?” I wasn’t expecting the complex answer that I got. The reason his answer required elaboration is because there’s a difference between how we view ourselves versus how customers view us. More simply, what you think we’re good at might not be what we think we’re best at.
Glen gave me this thought experiment to answer my question. He had me imagine a large, empty box and a pile of rocks of various sizes beside the box. In this pile, there’s some boulders, then smaller stones, then some pebbles, and finally some gravel and cinders. My theoretical task is to get all the rocks in the box, as compactly as possible. Ultimately, the best method is to fit all the big rocks into the box, then the medium sized ones, then dump the small bits over the top and let them fill in the empty space. Mr. Miyagi… I mean Glen, then explained that each one of those rocks represented a different type of job.
The large boulders largely represent new homes. These are the jobs that pay a lot, fill up a huge chunk of our schedule, and take a long time. The medium sized rocks are the room additions and large remodel jobs which pay well, take a decent amount of time, and have potential to give fascinating results. The gravel is the “fix-it” jobs, the handyman work.
We tend to like the medium sized rocks the best. The remodel jobs and the room additions are what we pride ourselves on and the most enjoyable to us because we’ve gotten good at them over the past 40 years. The full-size homes, however, are usually a long, drawn out process that’s hard for both us and the customer. The handyman jobs are what fill in the empty space in our schedule and help us grow our customer base.
But the task was to get all the rocks in the box. We aren’t the business that we are today without all those projects! We grow as a company through meeting new customers on small projects, the gravel, which tends to bring them back for their medium-size project, the stones. There are only a few boulders each year, and though those usually are best for the photo-op, they end up taking a while and a lot of hard effort. Regardless, Glen tried to explain that what we’re known for isn’t that important because all the projects are important.
So, you might know us for our room additions, or our remodel jobs, or our new homes, but none of that really matters because, in the end, every job has its purpose and we’re thankful for each one that comes through the door.
Thanks for reading!
Austin Knight
