The Lee Evans Award for Management Excellence is a prestigious award, given annually, to a top builder who displays exceptional, sound management principles, and reflects the high standards that we encourage our builders to strive to reach.
Could you be next year’s winner?
You will need to apply to find out!
Previous recipients include Southern Homes, Harcrest Homes, Hallmark Communities, and Grand Homes. This year, applications were received from several qualified builders. Often, the quality of the submissions received makes the decision of the Selection Committee extremely difficult.
2008 Lee Evans Award Winner: Touchstone Homes
The Lee Evans Group is delighted to announce that Touchstone Homes has been awarded the 2008 Lee Evans Award for Management Excellence. The award was announced at the Lee Evans Group Executive Summit, which was held in Vail, Colorado, March 10-14, 2008.
“We attended our first Lee Evans Group Managing for Profit seminar back in 1994,” said Touchstone’s Bryan Cohen after receiving the award. “It was pivotal to our becoming the builder we have become. In fact, the Lee Evans Group and Shinn Consulting have been intimately involved in our success.”
Touchstone Homes has been developing and building in some of Atlanta’s finest new home communities since 1994. Over the years, as one of Atlanta’s premier home builders, Touchstone Homes has built homes in Gwinnett, Forsyth, Fulton, Hall, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas and Barrow Counties.
After the award presentation in Vail, Bryan Cohen gave a presentation in which he outlined some of the steps that have led directly to Touchstone’s success, including:
• Focused on a process oriented operation.
• Established a dedicated Customer Service and Quality Assurance Department.
• Set up strict purchasing standards requiring Purchase Orders and VPOs.
• Brought Sales and Marketing in house.
• Set standards to drive results based on pre-established goals and objectives.
“We have benefited from working with the best of the professionals in the industry, many of whom we met through Chuck and Emma Shinn—to improve our processes and systems over the years,” says Cohen. “Our company’s structure has provided us an excellent platform to continue to grow from in the future.” Touchstone Homes has won a number of other industry awards, including BUILDER Magazine’s America’s Best Builder Award in 2007.
2007 Lee Evans Award Winner: The Green Company
The Green Company Wins Lee Evans Award For Second Time
The Green Company won the prestigious 2007 Lee Evans Award for Management Excellence at The Lee Evans Group’s annual executive summit in March. Focusing on customer service and smart, steady growth, the Massachusetts-based company impressed the jury once again with their management practices and continued success, despite the building industry’s tenuous climate. The company first won the Lee Evans Award in 2001. The award was accepted by Daniel Green, president of the company and son of The Green Company’s founder and chairman, Alan J. Green.
“We are deeply honored to be recognized by our peers,” commented Dan Green. “This is a difficult award to win once; twice is amazing to us.
“The combination of family and non-family [leadership] gives us the best of both worlds,” he continued. “For strategic and operational issues, David Caligaris, our CEO, and Alan (my father) jointly determine our direction. As president, I focus on marketing, technology, planning and design.”
The 50-year old company builds attached homes in the Boston area, clustering them to preserve views of water, meadows or woods, creating environmentally conscious communities. Green conveys the feel of single-family homes through inventive site planning, mature landscaping, and unique architectural design. With bright, open interiors, expansive views, and placement that creates a sense of privacy, these unique homes are The Green Company’s hallmark.
“Sustainable, eco-conscious building is here to stay. While new to most, we have been building in this environmentally sensitive way for the past 35 years,” Mr. Green remarked. “We focus on working with the land, not forcing our homes upon it. We cluster our homes to reduce the amount of paving and utility infrastructure we need. We design homes that will fit in with the landscape and meet our buyers’ needs.”
The Green Company also has an innovative “45 points of contact” system, designed to maintain continuous communication with buyers from the time they first visit a model through three separate post–move-in walkthroughs. And it includes individual phone calls from Alan Green welcoming them to the community. This remarkable customer service has set them apart from their competition and earned them the 2006 NRS Diamond Award winner for highest customer satisfaction in the country.
“Our high standards are the focal point of our company. Over 50% of our sales for the past five years have come to us through word of mouth from previous Green Company buyers,“ said Dan Green.
The Green Company is the only builder in the U.S. to win all three of the housing industry’s most prestigious honors: the Lee Evans Award (2001), America’s Best Builder (2000 National Association of Home Builders and Builder magazine), and the National Housing Quality Award (1999 NAHB and Professional Builder magazine).
“We continue our efforts on the environmental frontier as it creates value for our buyers and it makes us feel even better about the homes that we build,” said Mr. Green. “For The Green Company, our homes and our communities are our legacy. They will be here long after we are gone, and if we build them right, we can have a positive impact on people’s lives every day.”
For more information about The Green Company, please call (617) 969-0020, or visit www.greencos.com
2006 Lee Evans Award Winner: Southern Homes of Lakeland, Florida
Congratulations to Ed Laderer, Greg Masters and the entire team at Southern Homes of Lakeland, Florida, this year's recipient of the 2006 Lee Evans Award for Management Excellence. Founded by Greg Masters and Ed Laderer in 1991, Southern Homes designs outstanding communities, and builds homes with care and the highest level of quality. They deliver efficient 120-day build times, keeping the buyer updated every step of the way. They offer valuable upgrades that other builders often merely consider as options. It's no wonder that Southern Homes is the only central Florida home builder that can boast an incredibly high 94% Customer Satisfaction; and is ranked the #1 Home Builder in Polk County by the University of Florida. Greg Master's leadership and commitment to the Association also gained him recognition from the Polk County Builder's Association as this year's Builder of the Year.
Southern Homes has improved their net profitability from 1% to double digits in just four years. They meet or exceed every target ratio set by the Lee Evans Group and Shinn Consulting, and almost double the target for net profit before tax. These superior results come from setting goals and following through by making sure the entire company is disciplined to meet them.
The Award was presented to Southern Homes at the 2006 Executive Summit, where Ed and Greg spoke of their experiences, and how they were able to improve the company operations to meet Lee Evans Award standards.
Many builders in attendance commented on the value of seeing a real world example of someone executing the Shinn methods. Greg Masters pointed specifically to one facet of the teaching as the key to their success, "whether one home or a thousand, we would not start a home again without a purchase order".