Rafn Company - The Past 5 Years (2008-2013) and the Future

So what's so special about 35? It seems that 30, 40, or 50 are all about looking back. The end of something. 35 is the age when it seems you finally are all grown up. When you start looking ahead with the notion that it matters what you do. It matters who you are. You begin to seriously consider the impact your life has on others. 

The RAFN Company turns 35 this year. We have used this piece of our newsletter to tell the story of how we have evolved into a company with a consistent value driven reputation. In this final installment of the series we thought it could be fun to focus on the future. 

Briefly, the past five years have proven that our core values and our business model work. During the time when a lot of companies struggled to survive we held our own. We kept our head above water, our people working and focused on our customers. As a result we are thriving as we enter the next 35 years. 

I imagine that in the future our work will remain the same. We will continue to do the types of projects that our clients choose to pursue. There will be a half dozen mixed-use projects; some for people with limited incomes, some for seniors and some for hip young "millennials". There will be some infill "Transit Oriented Development" projects that include offices, retail spaces and community centers. We will continue to build out some great spaces for theaters, museums, architectural firms and restaurants. We will likely continue to prosper in the private school arena where our creativity coupled with quality serves a unique niche. And I both hope and anticipate that our work in historic renovation will continue to revitalize our wonderful city. 

I imagine that our clients will largely be the same people they have been with an occasional fun new personality like Jason Parker and his Copperworks Distillery. They will be people who appreciate our attention to detail and our honest approach to finding the specific ways that we can serve each individual customer. We will continue to work with great partners like Ira Gross (IL Gross) and Dan Say (Swenson Say Faget) as we discover new matches like Jim Cary (James Cary Architects) and Amy Hartwell (GGLO). 

We will continue to refine our accounting and project management systems to maintain their efficiency and accuracy while enhancing the user experience for our employees and clients. Our preconstruction processes will move to the cloud and become tools for the whole project team as we continuously seek more ways to collaborate. Our client relationship management tool will be used to facilitate communication, project close-out and feedback loops for better asset management and life-cycle product considerations. 

All of these things will progress without ever losing sight of those things which we have mastered. Our job costs will remain highly competitive, our quality assurance program will remain top tier, and our focus on safety will never be compromised. And most of all our culture will be the first, last and most important thing that our people learn and value. We will continue to seek the high road at every opportunity and we will continue to be - Good People doing Great Work.