C.P. Morgan - 2006 NHQ Silver Award Winner

Best PracticesLeadershipCorporate Profile: C.P. Morgan is a residential land development and home building company serving the metropolitan Indianapolis and Lafayette markets in Indiana and Charlotte, NC. Headquartered in Indianapolis, C.P. Morgan is the first home builder in Indiana to receive the Better Business Bureau of Central Indiana's Torch Award for Business Ethics.

C.P. Morgan is also the only builder/developer in the country to have been awarded four national awards for building with nature. C.P. Morgan has built more than 16,000 homes in more than 100 neighborhoods and has received national recognition for quality community development.

Mission: C.P. Morgan's mission is to provide more square feet for less money, more choice and an enjoyable building experience.

Management Team: Chuck Morgan, chairman and chief executive officer; Dan Horner, president and chief operating officer; and Mark Boyce, executive vice president of development.

Strategic Goals: C.P. Morgan strives to be a low-cost producer of first time and first-time move up new homes. The company does this by

• listening to the buyer in identifying the significant market
• creating a value proposition to determine what the significant market values
• creating an environment of operational excellence to deliver what the significant market values

To gain valuable market insight and customer feedback, C.P. Morgan relies on extensive market research surveys to local home buyers as well as to its customers. The builder's use of this information and a number of operations processes have allowed it to steadily gain favor as a builder of choice: customer satisfaction increased from 91 percent in 2003 to 98 percent in 2005.

Judge's Comments: “C.P. Morgan makes good use of feedback from stakeholders to continually improve the leadership function. It has great leadership demonstration. [It] started up the Charlotte location in 2005 and by the third quarter of 2005 had more than 600 home sales.”

C.P. Morgan
Best Practices: LeadershipWith strong Midwestern work ethic, Indianapolis-based C.P. Morgan believes a company's values define the essence of an organization. Its vision? To provide more people with more home than they ever dreamed possible. To this end, C.P. Morgan leadership os formed on the foundation of functional competence and execution, with an eye to deliver more home at a value price to customers.Close communications. C.P. Morgan uses an integrated structure around leadership which directly contributes to the company's ability to consistently meet goals. Each functional area of the company has an executive team member reporting directly to president Dan Horner. The executive team works closely to initiate action in each leader's area of responsibility involving people strategies, methods, standards, training and processes. The focus is then shifted to directors and manager who drive the team's execution.

Hands on. C.P. Morgan's highly visible method of leading means mid-level and executive management are frequently in the field. For example, company executives visit the company's new Charlotte, N.C. market on a weekly basis to coach and mentor field associates. Other support includes:

• quarterly corporate meetings attended by all C.P. Morgan associates
• monthly leadership training for city level directors and monthly meetings for city and corporate directors with the executive team
• weekly meetings with president Horner, the executive team, directors and managers: managers report on weekly field inspections and develop weekly action items
• rewarding success at the company including monthly “Mojo” awards which encourage associates to go beyond expectations and recognize synergy
• through a partnership with Soderquist Center for Leadership, an annual “Team Synergy Month,” with activities focused on leadership in the form of team-building exercises and hands-on training

Support tools. Other C.P. Morgan initiatives also contribute to highly visible leadership. Ultimately, these tools and processes drive performance, helping the company fulfill its vision and mission:

• Use of online “dashboard” technology used by the executive team and each department to track results against key measurements. These measures are reviewed monthly, weekly and sometimes daily
• an Expectations Committee, a cross-functional group which assures every company process produces the desired result in customer satisfaction
• Idea Pipeline to give a forum for any employee's idea for process improvement