During his journey from project manager to president of Graham Construction, Steve Hauschilt has learned that building relationships is as important as building the structures themselves.

Hauschilt started at the company in 1998 and was promoted to president last June. He said the “Graham mentality” made an instant impression on him when he joined the company, and he watches that philosophy continue to drive its success today.

“All of our employees from top to bottom, have this mentality of working with an owner’s mindset,” Hauschilt said. “If you’re in a situation where you don’t know what decision to make, but you ask yourself, ‘What’s best for the owner?’ the decision’s easy.”

Working in this manner fosters trust and lasting relationships between the clients and the construction teams. Hauschilt estimates that 95 percent of the company’s business comes from repeat clients. Another important factor that allows Graham to maintain solid relationships with clients is its pricing and services, Hauschilt said.

“A lot of our work is done on a cost-plus-fee basis,” Hauschilt said. “Once you establish the fee percentage, it’s all an open book to the owner. There’s no games, no secrets.”

Hauschilt contrasts the Graham method to the way that some other construction companies function, including one of his previous employers.

“The last company I was at was a very competitive bid, a hard bid, where the relationship there between the owner, the architect and the contractor was very adversarial,” Hauschilt said. “If you’re working with the adversarial mindset where ‘I’ve got to make a buck, and that’s the only thing that’s important to me,’ you lose sight of the relationship and future work because you’re just trying to make money on that one job and not looking ahead long-term.”

Graham Construction is best known for its work in the health-care sector, but it is also targeting three other areas: private college construction; long-term care and assisted living; and private commercial construction. Hauschilt pointed out Zook’s Harley-Davidson as a recent commercial success of the company.

“We are definitely on a path for growth right now,” Hauschilt said. “When everybody gets together and says, ‘This is our common goal. We have to get this done,’ it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”