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Guardian

™

Building Relationships Right

…once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Do not go where the path may lead; Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Introduction

n our offices, on our job sites, at our client retreat center – anywhere you’re around

Gearig employees or clients, you’ll hear one thing within short order. And it’s this: “Gearig does relationship right.” In fact, it’s the heart and soul of our business. The result? Well, we have the most satisfied clients around, clients who turn to us again and again, clients who become raving fans of Gearig and our unique approach to relationship and to business. We’re proud to say that we succeed where others often fail. We’re not afraid to go where others in our industry don’t. We’re not afraid to think outside of the box, to go where there is no path. It’s how we’ve become trailblazers in our industry. It’s how we’ve become the breakout civilworks firm in the Southeast. And we do it all for you, our client. We do it all in the spirit and practice of what we call right relationship.

We’ve created a unique project delivery system based on the principles that build relationship right. We call it Guardian™. And it’s a game changer. Our reason for being in business is simple: to support you so you can achieve. It creates purpose for us, purpose for this work we love. And we’ve discovered that this kind of support starts with building relationship right – with you, our client. When that happens, anything can be achieved. In fact, we believe in this so deeply that we’ve created a unique project delivery system based on the principles essential to building relationship right. We call it Guardian™. And it’s a game changer. Here’s why. Simply put, Guardian™ protects your project from all the things that could go wrong, all the things that would probably keep you up at night, worried about a project. Guardian™ isn’t a safety net, though. In fact, there’s a fundamental difference between Guardian™ and a safety net for your project. With Guardian™ we provide an integrated delivery system in the truest sense. It’s dynamic, responsive, elegant. Its distinctive design gets woven into the very fabric of your project. Guardian™ becomes as much a part of the life of your project as the very people who work on it. That’s noteworthy. And it puts Guardian™ in a league all its own.

Clark and Travis Gearig

On paper, Guardian™ is a simple, albeit skillful, process with huge payoffs for you. Before your project even starts, Guardian™ goes to work for you to: • secure your total project budget, • guarantee your project’s finish date, and • cover your carrying costs. We know that after Guardian™, you’ll never want to go back to “business as usual”. Here’s something else important to know. It’s not just Guardian’s process as you see it on paper that makes it work. In fact, put it in the hands of other firms, and it will fall flat. The real power of Guardian™, the engine that drives it, is the skill of being able to build relationship right. That’s our trademark. It’s how we do business each day. And we do business like no other. So building relationship right makes our integrated project delivery system like no other. Gearig breaks new ground with Guardian™. The following pages tell its story, tell the story of how Guardian™ builds relationship right for you and guarantees the stress-free success of your project.

Too often a story is examined through biased eyes, without sensitivity for those who forged it. ~ Jeffrey Wright

Establishing Project Clarity The Strength of Right View

civilworks project is like a story. A really good story with a life all its own. Yet it’s populated

with a wealth of other lives; it’s built through a wealth of experience, of expertise. Each person in the story, regardless of role, is essential. Each brings value and worth and insight. We know this to be true. And here’s something else we know to be true. For a great project to easefully succeed, it demands an abiding sensitivity to the people who forge its story, who breathe life into your project. It demands that we never lose sight of them, that we always strive to build and do relationship right– by them, with them, with those who are forging your project’s story, and, of course, with you. That’s how we build a great story. That’s the secret to how we bring everyone together to realize a great project. 9

…an absence of relationship being done right causes people essentially to work against each other. Guardian™ brings the whole team to the table, to the same table: Gearig’s seasoned engineers, estimators, project managers, and our professional field personnel. Can you feel how different that is already? Can you start to see how supportive it is to you? Historically, we’ve found that stress starts to increase on a project due to unexpected critical expenses – costs that could have been discovered and included in the design phase, costs that for whatever reason weren’t included. We took a look around the industry and discovered that this unfortunate reality often went hand-in-hand with an absence of relationship being done right, causing people essentially to work against each other.

More precisely, we noted an absence of something we call right view: that fundamental insight into how to build relationship right, how to truly support you, as opposed to the wrong view that leads to doing a project a certain way simply because “it’s always been done that way”. Right view is powerful. It dispels confusion, fear, discord, and misperception about what your project is, what its story is, what it takes to complete it successfully. In short, Guardian’s use of right view does away with bias. In its place, we bring to the table sensitivity, openness, and respect for you and your situation.

…right view is that fundamental insight into how to build relationship right, how to truly support you.

The people who’ve forged our story come to the table for you, together instead of in opposition, in the spirit of right view. With those right-view qualities in hand, we sit down and do something radical: We listen to you. We don’t listen superficially or to placate you. We listen with purpose; we listen to get clear about what you want, what you need. This gives us the clarity we need at the very beginning to put our engineers, project estimators, and key field professionals to work – as a team, as a powerful resource. The people who’ve forged our own story, who’ve forged the successful completion of each and every project we’ve worked on for almost 15 years come to the table, together instead of in opposition, in the spirit and practice of right view. And because of that, we’re able to give you the one thing you most want before the start of your project: true clarity. With Guardian™, we’re able to give you this with a handshake – along with the very best design concept and detailed budget possible, all guaranteed to let you sleep well at night.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. ~ Albert Einstein

Providing a Framework for Understanding The Strength of Right Thinking

he start of something great has a certain feeling, a certain taste. It catches your

attention, changes how you think, fills you with an infectious excitement. The start of something great animates, gives life, and draws you in. And you want nothing more than to be there, in the midst of it all. In the midst of the hard work and the intensity of each and every moment. It draws you in. With each project we start, we get this feeling. Our engineers get it. Our project managers get it. Our field professionals get it – from the operators to the mechanics. We all get it. And you get it, too. It’s the feeling of connection and of trust and of relationship done right. And it’s there from the very beginning with each project we do. It’s right there. The start of something great.

Giving you a design concept and budget that actually work, in the field and not just on paper, is something Guardian™ guarantees you. We believe that the start of something great, the start of your project, deserves this. How can we guarantee this? Well, because we’ve done something simple, and we’ve done it well. We’ve built a framework of understanding into Guardian™. It’s a way we ensure process control, but we do it like no one else. We leverage the power of mutual understanding, of knowing all the elements, all the details, their proper timing and place, and how they all come together to create the big picture. It’s an understanding that is built on what we call right thinking, on having a framework in place that reflects the way things are, in any particular moment. It leads to clarity. And that’s where the real power lies.

We leverage the power of mutual understanding, of knowing all the details, their proper timing and place, and how they all come together to create the big picture.

When all the human resources of a project, all office and field professionals, operate from the same frame of reference, they don’t get lost. The intricacies of the project don’t get lost. Everyone sees the way things are, not just the pieces but how they fit together, too. So it’s not just a system for process control, it’s a framework of understanding. It’s the difference that lets Guardian™ offer the kind of guarantees that give you peace of mind.

The heart of this framework of understanding is our design development agenda. We develop this crucial document – this framework – for all major stakeholders to review and provide input on. The outcome? A clear statement of each participant’s area of responsibility and the anticipated steps needed to arrive at full design documents and a guaranteed final price.

Our design development agenda provides the framework for you and everyone to understand and be aware of all the detailed activities on the project, to creatively interact with the project to make it perform better. This supple framework of understanding empowers; it welcomes and even embraces new ideas on any development that may occur. And it guarantees the final price is accurate and thorough. This gives you the assurance you need to communicate clearly and confidently to your investors or stockholders. It gives you a real peace of mind that is rarely experienced in our industry, a peace of mind that is always guaranteed to all Gearig clients who choose Guardian™.

This framework of understanding guarantees our final price to you is accurate and thorough.

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: “It might have been”. ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

Reducing Risk to You The Strength of Right Speech

here you are, in the field, sun bright overhead. The hot, dusty day lingers, just hangs around. No

wind to move it along. It holds you in place, holds your thoughts in front of you, keeps you focused. Then all of a sudden, something breaks through, breaks through your focus, breaks through the dust, the heat, your thoughts. All of a sudden, there it is, staring you in the face – rock. Uncovered now, but never unknown. The last scoop brought it into view, into the light of this hot, dusty day. But you knew it would. You knew it. And you know what to do next. It’s all in the plan. No surprises. No hit to the budget. No negative impact on the schedule. No risk exposed. It’s simply rock. And today, it doesn’t have to be a problem. No one needs to say: “It might have been better to...”.

Civilworks projects involve risks: unforeseen developments, destructive weather, work delays, budget overruns. It’s a fact that anyone in our industry knows, perhaps all too well. Because risk management is a primary concern of clients, it had to be addressed as we developed Guardian™. We gathered real data, studied our own project histories, all the details, work logs, communication trails, budgets. In the end, we discovered something big. We discovered that we had been successfully managing project risks all along. Then the epiphany: We could take this further for our clients. We could take risk management to the next level. We could move risk management to risk minimization and even risk mitigation. So we studied some more, we tested, and we integrated a dynamic risk-management protocol into Guardian™ that produces results far exceeding existing industry statistics.

We take risk management to the next level…to risk minimization and even risk mitigation.

How do we do it? The real power of Guardian’s riskmanagement protocol begins and lives in the “white space”. Its genesis isn’t in preventative action. Rather it all starts with clear communication that unfolds between people who do relationship right. It’s something we call right speech. And it fosters effective and supportive communication. At its heart is a deep listening to you, to the land, to our project team – and all with understanding and sensitivity. It’s key to building relationship right. And it’s essential, we’ve discovered, to moving risk management to the next level, the level of Guardian™.

Guardian’s dynamic riskmanagement protocol guarantees that your project will unfold as presented. This high-caliber quality of risk management supports you by increasing your asset’s performance. Lending standards are satisfied. Credit is freed up more quickly for future projects. And the big picture? Guardian’s dynamic risk-management protocol guarantees that your project will unfold as presented. No surprises. No hits to your capital resources. No meetings in which you will ever hear us say: “It might have been better to….”.

There’s nothing more attractive than someone with passion for something…who is always seeking the better. ~ Unknown Author

Guaranteeing On-Time Delivery The Strength of Right Action

ain. Five days of rain. Five days of wash out, of flooding. Stretches of rain like this bring the

restless nights, the worry. You know the feelings. You’ve had projects in the past where rain made everything go from good to bad, from profit to loss. And you were helpless. But this time is different. This time the rain is simply a fact. This time you rest easy, sleep well, because you know Guardian™ is there for you. This field crew. This company. They’re there for the success of your project. They’re there now – the wet still hanging in the air. They’re able to be there now because they’ve been able to think outside of the box, to know how to work with the rain instead of having it work against them, against you.

On-time delivery constantly asks us to find the better, to always do the best for your project, for you, our client. On-time delivery. It’s one of our Guardian™ guarantees. Truth be known, we shocked many in our industry with this guarantee. But for us at Gearig, it’s simply the right thing to do in order to support our clients to achieve. And, to be honest, it’s just good fun for us. It’s good fun for our hard-working professionals. It fuels our passion. It demands we think outside of the box. It constantly asks us to find the better, to always do the best for your project, for you, our client.

That means that with Guardian™, you’ll never hear us say, “We can’t guarantee you a delivery date because of…”. Instead, Guardian™ lets us truthfully say, “We will guarantee a delivery date and if there’s a problem, it will be Gearig’s problem, not yours.” We like to call this way of working right action: doing what needs to be done to create clarity instead of confusion, to prevent the unnecessary realities of wasted time and wasted money. It’s action that is based in creative, detailed, front-end planning. It’s action that leads to accuracy, that leads to stressfree days for you when the heavy, expensive equipment hits the ground. It’s integral to how we build relationships right. And it shines through every aspect of Guardian™.

Guardian™ lets us truthfully tell you, “…if there’s a problem, it will be Gearig’s problem, not yours.”

The future will change once you experience Guardian™. You’ll never go back to “business as usual”. The benefits you receive from our on-time delivery guarantee are many. They range from spot-on precision in your cash projections to meticulous and timely execution of your marketing and hiring plans. This all leads to better management of your entire portfolio. Practical benefits like these become the support you need to achieve. We know you get this. And we know that you get that the future will change for the better once you experience Guardian™. You’ll never go back to doing “business as usual”. You won’t be able to – not after experiencing the strength of real security, the kind of security that only comes out of building relationship right, the kind that’s only possible from guarantees and never from promises, that is born only out of working with you and never against you. This is the kind of security that changes lives. And it’s the kind of security that’s unreservedly offered to you with Guardian™.

To begin, begin. ~ William Wordsworth