When this multi-disciplined engineering firm hit a plateau, Gary DeJidas stepped in to point it in a new direction.

When Gary DeJidas took the helm as president, CEO, and board chairman of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based GAI Consultants in 2003, it wasn’t hard for him to see that the company was in a slump. Senior principals had reached retirement age, and as they cashed in their shares, the company wasn’t sure what direction to move next.

GAI traces its roots back to 1958 when three Carnegie Mellon University professors formed E. D’Appolonia and Associates, a geotechnical firm. In 1965, a portion of the company broke off to form General Analytics Inc., which later became GAI Consultants, and branched out into a number of fields, including civil, structural, environmental, and transportation engineering, as well as geology, hydrology, soil sciences, and cultural resources.

In 1972, DeJidas joined the company with the enthusiasm of a college graduate and worked in the Pittsburgh office until 1982, at which point the company began to consider expanding into other regions. Not thinking his idea would ever come to fruition, DeJidas volunteered to open a branch office in Florida. To his surprise, the company jumped on the idea and bestowed the task on him.

Gary DeJidas

“At that point, I had a problem on my hands. Because I never thought they would choose me, I never bothered to mention it to my wife, a native Pennsylvanian, just like me. I had to go home and fess up. After she was done yelling at me, she was a real trooper, and we’ve lead a wonderful life here in Orlando,” DeJidas said, chuckling at the memory.

Communication is key
Between 1982 and 2002, the Orlando office of GAI Consultants grew from five people to more than 100, and the Jacksonville office, which was opened in the mid 1990s, grew to 30 people. During that same period, the employment at the Pittsburgh and Northeast offices rose from 150 to more than 200. But in 2002, the company hit a plateau.

“Revenues flattened out at $40 million a year and we didn’t talk about growing. We slipped into a mode of protecting the present instead of looking to the future,” said DeJidas. “When I was elected president, I wanted to move the company in a new direction.”

DeJidas started by gathering the key employees in all the offices throughout Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia together for a visioning session during which the company set future goals. One of the major goals became to bring the offices, which had been operating independently, together as one team.

For example, in the past, DeJidas explained, the Jacksonville office would most likely pass up a potential cultural resources job because it didn’t have a department capable of handling it. “Yet, we have one of the biggest cultural resources groups in the Northeast. We had to change that mentality so each office looks for opportunities that will benefit the company as a whole,” said DeJidas, adding that communication was the first step.

When DeJidas started the Orlando office in 1982, he instituted quarterly state-of-the- company meetings. “I simply wanted to inform the staff as to how we were doing financially and bring them up to speed on happenings they might not have been aware of,” he said, adding that employees now thirst for such knowledge as they have a vested interested in the company through an ESOP. In his new role as president and CEO, DeJidas expanded this practice to all offices. In addition, GAI sends out “newsflashes” via email to all employees each time the company wins a significant bid or an employee achieves a milestone.

According to DeJidas, developing an Intranet has done wonders for bringing the company together. Important employment and benefits information, project updates, and a monthly memo from the CEO are posted, as well as photos and brief descriptions of each staff member. “With a company of this size, you don’t get to meet everyone, so we created an employee database. If I’m talking to someone in our Charlestown, W. Va. office, I can pull up a picture and know who I’m talking to. And it refreshes my memory as to who is who when I visit the other offices.”

To break down barriers further, GAI formed a committee to identify possible road blocks. DeJidas learned that one of the main reasons the offices hesitated to work as a team was that the company did not have a system to fairly allocate revenue on jobs shared between offices. In response, the company switched to Deltek accounting software, which breaks projects down by task manager and distributes revenue credit more fairly.

For instance, GAI is currently in the midst of a retail development project in Jacksonville that requires a bridge to be built over railroad tracks. The Jacksonville office doesn’t have bridge design capabilities, so that particular task was assigned to the Pittsburgh office. “We can separate the revenue in a way that both offices get credit for the work and can meet their yearly revenue goals,” said DeJidas.

Training for the future
The company also formed a leadership development committee to design a succession plan. According to the CEO, GAI didn’t groom him or anyone else to take over the company—he just happened to be in the fortunate position of having opened and managed two branch offices on his own. “I am only here for a certain amount of time, so we have to prep the next generations so that when I am ready to retire, we don’t repeat history.”

GAI University maps out career paths for employees depending on their goals. For instance, if an employee aspires to become CEO, s/he is handed a list of suggested courses to accomplish over the coming years before s/he can be considered for the position. Another list is handed to those who wish to some day be project managers, and so on.

Although GAI University is mainly focused on senior leadership, internal and external training opportunities are available at all levels of the company. In fact, GAI recently completed an intensive course for project managers at all the offices. At the staff level, health and safety, risk management and loss prevention, quality control and assurance, and diversity training is provided.

Since DeJidas took the wheel at GAI in 2003, the company has seen more than just improvements in communication, technology, facilities and training. From the plateau of $40 million the company maintained before the transition of leadership and ownership, revenue will jump to $60 million this year. “We have truly refocused ourselves on being a growing company.”