Executive of the Month: Gallin, partner at John Gallin & Son: Celebrating his 40th anniversary with the 130-year old firm

New York, NY John Gallin & Son is one of the city’s oldest and most storied construction and general contracting firms. As the company enters its 130^th year, the New York Real Estate Journal sat down with partner Michael Gallin, who is in the middle of a celebration of his own: his 40^th anniversary with the firm. Q: How did you get started in the business?  A: My first job was with Gallin when I was 18 years old, right out of high school. We were working on a big job at 65 Broadway – it was a re-stack of about seven floors, gutting everything. My job though, was to clean the bathrooms. Glamorous, I know. But that’s all I did, all day. I would just clean one bathroom, then go to the next. Throughout college, I worked during the summers and holidays. When I graduated, I continued full-time working as a laborer at Gallin. I worked my way up through pretty much every role in the company – superintendent, estimator, project manager – learning the ins and outs of the business. After about eight to nine years, I was made a junior partner, and I became one of the major partners about 10 years after that, when my father, uncle and a few others retired. Q: Does starting out as a laborer – and working in so many different roles – impact the way you think about the company now? A: The only thing I haven’t done is finance. (Laughing) They never let me touch the money! But I did pretty much everything, just like everyone else. The other partners and I all started as laborers. Because we were out there in the field, we know how the job works on a deeper level, and come to it from a broader perspective. We understand the drawings, the design intent, the budget. That allows us to value engineer without depreciating the quality of the job. Q: How do you think being a member of a construction family impacted you growing up?  A: The company has always been in my family – my generation is the fourth to lead the firm – but I never felt like I was growing up in the business. I wasn’t going to sites on Saturdays, and my father wasn’t coming home every night and showing me how to read architectural drawings. He always had a philosophy of “When you’re at work, you’re at work, and when you’re at home, you’re at home.” Growing up, I visited maybe three job sites, one of which was the Swiss Air terminal at JFK. Q: Of all the roles you’ve played, what’s been the most instructive? What was your favorite? A: Superintendent. As the super on the job you interface with the clients, the subs, the home office. You manage the budget, and balance it against the time on the job. That was the most hands-on role in the company, and the role in which you interact with pretty much every aspect of the business. Plus there’s a sense of ownership – when you bring in a project, it’s your baby. Q: What are some of the most important lessons that you’ve learned from the people that came before you? Who were some of your role models? A: My father was a huge influence. He taught me to be fair, and to take ego out of my decisions. To do the right thing, and treat people like people. He was probably the most respected and levelheaded person I’ve ever known. I always try to live up to the standards he set. Pete Austin was another mentor. He was head of production when I was a superintendent. I wound up being head of production for 26 years, and I’m still amazed with him. He gave me a few pages of rules for how to do things that I was just in awe of. Later, he told me that each of those rules came from a mistake he had made at some point. From him, I learned not to be afraid of making mistakes, but to be afraid of making them twice. Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced working your way up? A: Probably the hardest thing was being a Gallin. I used to wonder if people respected me because I was good, or because of my last name. People definitely talk to me differently because of who I am, and I’ve had to learn to sift through what they say in order to get to what they really mean. It’s also helped somewhat, in that I think I pushed myself harder, and held my work to a higher standard in order to prove myself. I’m still very hard on myself, still driven to be better. I also learned to trust the people who aren’t afraid to tell me what they think, what they truly believe. Q: How does it feel to inherit a company with so much history, and with so much of your family’s history wrapped up into it? A: The longer I spend in the business, the more aware of the history, pride and pressure I become. When things are good, it’s great to have your name on the door. But over the course of my 40 years, we’ve had two or three really serious economic downturns, and moments where we wondered if we’d be able to stay open. You don’t want to be the one responsible for closing a 130 year-old company. Q: That brings up a good point - how have you managed to sustain Gallin through so many turbulent moments in the country’s history? A: It’s a few things. One is attitude, and determination that we simply won’t let the company close. That really carried us through the 80s, 90s and then the most recent crash in 2009. Q: Is there also just a faith that the business model of a 130 year-old company will be able to carry the company through? A: Well, there is a faith in the business model, but also a faith in the way we are as people. We take a long approach. We’re always fair to clients and easy to work with. We also hire the most dedicated people out there – people who do whatever it takes when times get tough. There are many people who have been here for decades, and several families that have been with us for generations. There have been, I think 49 members of the Terry family to work with us over the last 30 years. It really is amazing. Q: How has Gallin been able to build that family history over the years? Do you like to hire within families? A: No, not necessarily. I would say that we look for people with a certain attitude, and people who take a personal stake in things. We don’t like “me types” – people who can do it all, but are very self-centered. We look for people who are balanced, dedicated, and willing to learn. Q: Looking back on your 40 years with Gallin, how has the company changed since you started?  A: Well, we’ve grown a lot. Also, my generation of partners is the first not to have a majority shareholder. My grandfather gave it to my uncle, and my uncle gave it to my father. There was always one person at the top. Now there are three people equally in charge. What that’s let us do is branch out. Over the last 10-15 years we’ve more or less tripled our business and we’ve been able to do it the right way. We haven’t had to chase every piece of business, but rather gotten to work with good clients who value a good job. Clients who will call us back a few years later and say, “let’s do it again.” Q: How about the industry as a whole? A: Technology, obviously, has made everything faster. I’ve also seen a lot of design trends come and go – and then come back again. Open spaces and polished concrete floors, for example. From a business perspective, there’s a cycle of clients going with the lowest bidder versus paying more for the right person. In down times, actually, clients tend not to go for the lowest bidder, because they can’t afford any mess-ups. They have to know that the job will be done right. That’s a big part of how we’ve kept going through tough economic situations. When things get bad, clients still come to us, because they can trust the work we do. Q: Going forward, what do you think the most important thing is for Gallin to do in order to maintain its quality and reputation? A: Finding the right people. People who understand what we’re trying to do, and who take pride in their work. I remember a few years ago, we had a client who didn’t have a lot of money. He wanted the cheapest shelving, and he even said not to bother taping the walls before we painted. When I showed up to the job site, the team had put up quality shelving and everything was painted perfectly. They realized that at some point, someone would point at the result and say it was our work. They decided that it was better to eat the cost rather than do a sub-par job and they were right. That job got us a lot of referrals, and that client came back to us down the road. We believe that in situations like that, we’re not dropping our price for the client, we’re investing in that relationship, and in those referrals down the road. Q: Of everything you’ve learned over the past 40 years, and from the 130-year history of Gallin, what do you think is most important to impart to the next generation of Gallins – now the fifth – as they make their way into the next 130 years? A: Do what you think is right. Take a tough stand if you have to. It’s easy to do things the wrong way, but doing it the right way always pays off in the long run.  Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Pay attention to the job in front of you – do that well and more will follow.