Fishers Build Businesses

Leading throught confidence,
high standards

by Marina Parr
Photos by Jerry Gay

Chad Fisher grew up swinging a hammer and framing houses. It was sweaty, tiring work. It was also part of the family business.

Fisher’s father, Robert, owned a construction company that specialized in custom-built homes.

When Fisher headed off to college in the mid 1970s he told himself he wasn’t going to have anything to do with construction.

It’s the kind of story that draws a belly laugh these days from those who have watched Fisher and his older brother, Jerome, expand their father’s construction business into a Skagit County powerhouse.

Now 50, Chad Fisher is a low-key, confident man behind much of his company’s success. He’s a leader who instills exacting standards that filter down through the ranks.

Most of all, Fisher believes in the people his company hires. And it’s that confidence that percolates throughout the business.

Asked what it takes to be a successful leader, Fisher does not pause.

“Hiring good people, giving them good directions and letting them go with it,” he said. “Get out of their way.”

Fisher said he’s observed some companies put such tight controls on their workers that it becomes a choke hold. In those places, workers become so weighed down with policies and regulations that they function as corporate cogs rather than as contributing, team players.

“They don’t let people do their job,” he said.

At Fisher & Sons, talented people are promoted. Indeed, several top managers have become partial owners of the company.

“In our company we set a direction and then each person can become a good leader,” Fisher said.

Fisher has high expectations that can be boiled down to a few key points.

• Be on time.

• Do what you say you’re going to do.

• Conduct your business with high ethical standards.

Fisher is a stickler for punctuality. He gets to meetings early and he’s been known to switch doctors if they keep him fidgeting in the waiting room.

“Time is important to everybody, no matter who you are,” he said. “It’s a total lack of respect to be late. Absolutely rude.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Fisher’s principles have paid off in more business and repeat customers.

The Burlington-based company —- which builds everything from medical facilities to banks to white-collar offices — is known for meeting its deadlines and keeping within budget.

“Those kinds of things don’t just happen by chance. They do a beautiful job,” said Cheryl Bishop, co-CEO of Skagit State Bank.

Since 1977, Fisher & Sons has built every new branch the bank has constructed. The company also built the bank’s data processing center.

“They’re efficient. They’re on time. They’re on budget,” Bishop said.

The company – which specializes in commercial and industrial projects – also constructs and designs warehouses, food processing plants and cold-storage facilities in eastern Washington.

“We’re builders of businesses, I guess,” said Fisher during a recent interview.

Fisher is the company’s president. His brother, Jerome, 51, is CEO of the holding company, Fisher Companies. Younger brother, Todd, 45, works for the company as a superintendent at various job sites. Only little sister, Veonne, holds a job outside the business. She’s an insurance executive.

Fisher’s father, Robert, retired a few years back. Meanwhile, several key managers have become partial owners in the company, although the two elder Fisher brothers still have a majority stake.

Fisher is a low-key kind of guy who doesn’t seek out the spotlight. Colleagues, friends and clients describe him as “unflappable.”

“He’s a calming force,” Bishop said. “He does not get overwrought about a crisis. He just deals with it. It permeates the whole company.”

Most days, Fisher comes to work dressed in khakis and casual dress shirts, clocking in at 7 a.m. and, during lengthy road trips, barely getting home before 11 p.m.

He’s happy with his work, despite the occasional long hours. Fisher may not hanker to hold a hammer, but he said he found his life’s work when he studied construction management at Washington State University.

It’s a complex field that requires Fisher to know everything from how long it takes to dig a ditch to how long it takes to file appropriate paperwork with permitting agencies. He looks at the big picture of all that goes into constructing a building from the ground up, and makes sure the best people are in place to do the job.

“The thing I like about construction is you start with bare dirt and when you’re done you’ve created a business that people can prosper from,” he said. “One of the most rewarding things is that almost everybody we’ve ever built for, we’re friends with. You become pretty entrenched with them. You spend an awful lot of time during construction. It’s probably the largest single expenditure any company has.”

Fisher has helped oversee projects as far away as Michigan and Texas. His company also has teamed up with Canadian firms to build commercial facilities in Alberta and Manitoba, Canada.

Most projects, however, are closer to home. The bulk of Fisher & Sons’ business is focused on Skagit, Whatcom, Island and Snohomish counties.

When Fisher does travel out of town, he typically hops in his white Suburban and heads east of the Cascades to confer on the status of a food processing plant or cold-storage facility.

The company’s project managers handle paperwork and visit construction sites each week. Meanwhile, a superintendent, including Fisher’s brother, Todd, works at the site full time, typically four to six months, until the project is finished.

When Fisher joined his father’s business in 1977, he was barely out of college with a construction management degree under his tool belt. Older brother Jerome also focused on construction management while at WSU.

The two helped steer the company away from residential home building into the commercial and industrial building market. In the mid 1970s the company did about $100,000 to $200,000 a year in business.

These days the volume runs to $40 to $50 million in construction each year. During peak times, Fisher & Sons counts as many as 300 to 400 employees.

“They’re at the top of their industry,” said Don Wick, executive director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County. “It’s quality people and a quality company.”

Chad Fisher currently heads up the economic development association as board president. The association, with about 500 dues paying members, is focused on retaining, as well as attracting more businesses to Skagit County.

“He’s understated and very bright,” said Wick of Fisher. “He always wants to do things right ... It’s perfect to be a nice guy and finish first.”

As president of EDASC, Fisher is more figurehead than anything else. The position, which is filled by a different member each year, is mostly administrative.

Fisher oversees board meetings, helping facilitate what might otherwise be an unwieldy group. There are 18 board members, all from different parts of the county, representing different businesses.

“You get a good variety of opinions. It’s a good sounding board,” said Fisher.

“We do have a strong membership,” he added. “Stronger than most. It gives us good marketing support.”

When someone is looking to potentially move their business to Skagit County, Fisher and other board members often meet with them as a kind of unofficial welcome wagon.

“It’s ‘Hey, you have a lot of companies behind you,’” said Fisher, who noted that EDASC members can fill fellow business people in on market conditions, the local labor pool and prime locations to construct a new business.

Promoting the county isn’t much of a stretch for Fisher, who grew up west of Burlington and has lived in Skagit County all his life.

At Fisher & Sons, he heads up the company’s marketing and sales effort. Most of his business is gained through word of mouth.

Fisher said his company works with city and county planning departments, as well as state environmental agencies. The goal, he said, is to help developers navigate the complex, and often costly, permit process.

Private developers are expected to chip in impact fees that pay for fire and police departments, roads and sewers. Those fees have risen in recent years, as have the zoning requirements that help ensure a new building doesn’t harm the environment.

“We have a really good relationship with agencies. We respect their difficulties,” Fisher said. “We try to really work with them. It’s a teaming thing. You have to appreciate what they’re doing to cover their bases.”

Water quality issues —- from fish passage to wetlands —- can be a significant hurdle for new construction. Also, developers must take into account increased traffic, often paying for traffic lights and road improvements. And if a developer is building near the flood prone Skagit River, buildings must be raised above flood level.

Fisher said he and his colleagues sit down with permit officials to hammer out a fair arrangement.

“There’s always a formula written but you’ve got to interpret it and make sure it’s interpreted right by (agencies). That’s where we get involved,” Fisher said.

Burlington Planning Director Margaret Fleek has nothing but praise for Fisher & Sons.

“They have the ability to take on projects with pretty much impossible time lines and pull it off,” said Fleek, who points to the 25,000-square-foot Michael’s crafts store project along Burlington Boulevard as a recent example.

“They’re very good at digging into the level of details needed to make sure they can move everything forward on schedule,” she added. “So there are no unforeseen problems.”

In recent years, Fisher and his company have had to contend with a significant slump in the commercial and industrial building industry. That slump reflects the sluggish economy. Fewer investors have been willing to put money into new buildings.

But a turnaround is underway.

“We do see it coming back. I fully anticipate 10 to 15 percent growth by the middle of 2004,” Fisher said. “We’ll finally be through all this. We have a tremendous amount of work in the pipeline and that’s encouraging. People are finally starting to talk again. It was very quiet for a while.”