| CSA Group: Growing Tall |
| Corporate Spotlight | |||
| Written by Meghan Flynn | |||
| Thursday, 01 May 2008 | |||
 With a couple of good years under its belt, this professional services firm is paving the way for minority owned firms and striving for excellence.
“The CSA mentality is contrary to the traditional way Puerto Rican businesses operate, which is to be the supplier or subcontractor to larger US or European firms, and that really appealed to me,” said Riefkohl.  Frederik Riefkohl, CEO The company has certainly benefited from all that effort, and the last few years were big ones for growth. CSA now operates across the eastern half of the US and in Panama, largely through acquisitions and mergers. “That is a unique strategy for firms our size, which usually serve as a cash cow for the owners until someone comes along and buys them,” Reifkohl said. “We’re pursuing a young, energetic strategy.” Helping hand The company’s growth and success positions it as a leader in its industry, a position it uses to provide guidance and support for smaller firms, particularly ones that are minority owned. The company is developing a formal mentor-protégé program through the federal government’s Small Business Administration and already has informal mentoring relationships with some smaller firms. In this way, CSA is a leader in its industry for other minority-owned firms. It manages a state project in Florida aimed at helping smaller minority-owned companies and looks for minority corporate relationships in all its markets, creating opportunities for them to succeed as well. Currently, CSA is looking at developing relationships with universities and architectural or engineering schools, particularly those with a high percentage of Hispanic or minority graduates. The company hopes to provide promising students with scholarships or work study programs. Riefkohl pointed out that these projects don’t just help minorities or CSA, they benefit the entire industry, which he said is suffering from a huge supply deficit in the number of available engineers and architects. “The baby boom generation had a lot of engineers, and they are the people running the professional services firms today. But the younger generation is not entering the technical field in the same way,” said Riefkohl. And there is no end to the demand for the services CSA provides. There are bridges that need to be upgraded or rebuilt, and water mains break just about every day in the US. He added that the demographics of the US are shifting, with people moving into places that historically have not had capable infrastructure and are not able to handle an influx of residents. “The name of the game for us is to grow and grow, because there will be plenty of work for companies like ours, and we need to have the critical mass to handle it,” Reifkohl said. Creative incentives CSA does the best it can to keep the professionals it currently employs happy. Reifkohl cited yearly surveys that help the company keep up with how its 550 employees feel and what they need. He said the company tries to be creative with incentive and recognition programs, but he emphasized that the most important thing CSA does for its employees is provide them with opportunities for work. “One of the most important things we can do for them is to provide them with the right professional experiences and challenges. As a firm with a hand in several different markets, we are able to provide them with new locations and projects all the time,” Reifkohl said. He explained that CSA has a specifically defined resource allocation process managers go through every two weeks, during which they assign work based on employees’ skills and the company’s need. Each time, with each person, the process is a little different because everyone has different strengths, he explained. CSA puts that much effort into the assignment of their employees because of its dedication to delivering excellent services, a dedication that has brought it great success so far. But it’s one thing to be the largest Hispanic-owned professional services firm in the US, another to be the best on both American continents, which is the company’s goal. “We don’t want to be known as the largest Hispanic firm in the US,” said Riekohl. “We want to be known for excellence in everything we do. So with each new project, that is what we deliver.” |
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American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
American Executive is a RedCoat Publishing publication.
