Shea Homes, Walnut, Calif.
5,878 UnitsHOW DOES A COMPANY GO from helping to build the Hoover Dam and Golden Gate Bridge to constructing single-family homes in Denver, Los Angeles, and San Diego?
Employees of Shea Homes will tell you it's by virtue of tradition. From its earliest days, J.F. Shea Co., Shea Homes' parent company, has been focused on one thing, it says: “Do the right thing.”
“Without a doubt, that permeates our culture,” says Chetter Latcham, president of Shea Homes Colorado. “John Shea [the company's founder] made sure that's the way we build our homes.”
While doing the right thing has long been the undercurrent running through the company, the builder has given the ethos new life through a recent branding initiative, which employees say has better linked the seven home building divisions and facilitated new growth. Meanwhile, the company has maintained its attention to leadership principles and total quality management, enabling it to solidify its position as the nation's largest privately owned home builder.
Peter Shea Jr. (left), COO, J.F. Shea Co.; Bert Selva (right), president and CEO
Started as a plumbing company in 1881, J.F. Shea Co. expanded its brand throughout the 20th century, widening its scope first to commercial construction, and 40 years ago, to home building. Today, Shea family members continue to work in the company's ranks—Peter Shea Jr. is the COO—and employees believe the family's ownership is a strong tool for selling homes. “We hear it from [the customers],” Latcham says. “They want to buy a house with a face and a name to attach to it.”
The home building operation started in Southern California but soon branched out to other divisions, including Washington state, Phoenix, and North Carolina. (In each division, the company offers a variety of products, most aimed at first- and second-time, move-up buyers, at an average price point of $390,000.)
With the addition of the new divisions, Shea grew rapidly, from $1.6 billion in revenues in 1999 to an estimated $2.8 billion in 2004. Entrepreneurship stimulated much of that growth, as divisions largely operated independently and were free to respond to their markets' demands and opportunities.