Linda Rabbitt and John Coe
Bio
Linda Rabbitt founded rand* construction in 1989 and was one of very few female leaders in the industry at the time. She is still an active leader as Owner and Chair of the Board of Directors, and serves as a resource to the new CEO, leadership, and management teams as they work to advance the vision and strategies for rand’s future.
Under her leadership, rand grew from being a small tenant interiors firm into a $400+ million national multi-market construction corporation. Her knowledge of the industry and professional experience has enabled rand to deliver award-winning work for a vast client base. With a focus on networking, innovation, quality, and customer service.
Linda serves on the Board of Directors of the Economic Club of Washington, DC, acting as a Trustee of George Washington University, and working as a Director of the International Women’s Forum, she served on the Federal Reserve Board – Richmond, and on the Board of Directors for Brookfield Properties. Furthermore, she is a Horatio Alger Award winner and is featured by sponsoring a program at Harvard Business School teaching women to excel in business and how to join corporate boards. Named as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in DC” by Washingtonian Magazine and “Outstanding Director” by the Washington Business Journal, Linda continues to push the bar for Women’s causes and achievements in business.
A graduate of George Washington University with a Master of Arts, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, she is at heart a teacher and a visionary for advancing the next generation of leaders through education. She enjoys philanthropy, history, traveling the world, and spending time with her five grandsons.
Show Notes
Current Role
- Founder Planning to make company “multi-generational” comparing to other contractors- Clark, Hitt and Davis (4:30)
- She is the strategist (5:00)
Origins & Education
- Childhood- Born and lived in Suburban Detroit (5:45)
- Grosse Pointe Woods and then Bloomfield Hills, MI (6:00)
- Father immigrated from Germany in 1925 and became an automotive engineer working for Chrysler Corp. (6:15)
- 19 patents with Briggs and Chrysler
- Mother was a 2nd generation immigrant from Italy (7:20)
- Parents met at Briggs Corp (predecessor of Chrysler Corp.) (7:55)
- Father was very disciplined and Mother was the networker and social person (8:40)
- Diligence from Father and people skills from Mother (9:00)
- High School at Bloomfield Hills H.S. (10:00)
- Attended University of Michigan (10:30)
- Mother wanted her to be a school teacher and marry a doctor or another successful person (11:15)
- Women were expected to think about teaching or nursing (12:00)
- Was there during the disruption times in the late 1960s when the students were revolting due to the Vietnam War (13:00)
- How did we make it? Cities burning including Detroit at the time she was in college. (14:15)
- Watched the tumultuous times and developed the desire to “make a difference” (14:35)
- Moved to Washington DC right out of college to be with a boyfriend and looked for a teaching job, but started graduate school at GW to get a Masters in Education. (15:40)
Teaching and First Marriage
- Got a teaching job out of grad school (16:40)
- Married in 1975 while teaching to a doctor and had two children (17:30)
- Husband was abusive and suffered from manic depression (18:15)
- Divorced her husband after four years of marriage (18:45)
- Got a job as a secretary at KPMG as she had let her teaching license lapse from a fellow parent at Langley School where her daughters attended (19:45)
- She was in the depths and her Father told her to take care of her Mother when he was dying (21:15)
- She spent the rest of her life to prove to her Father (22:00)
- “Everyone I know that is successful has a story that fuels them to achieve something that they had no idea they could achieve.” (22:30)
- She met her ex husband’s first wife and had to understand why her ex husband did what he did (23:00)
KPMG
- KPMG experience
- Feb. 2nd, 1981- a day that changed her life when she took a bus home from work (24:50)
- 9 mos. after starting she was promoted to be the Managing Partner’s (Steve Harlan) assistant (26:00)
- Named her as “Director of Practice Development” shortly thereafter (27:00)
- Learned quite a bit about business there after she was promoted. Her colleagues there were shocked that she was promoted without any business training (27:50)
- John Viehmeyer– Became Global Chair of KPMG (28:45)
- Harlan asked her to join the Greater Washington Board of Trade and she met Sherry Turner, her future business partner (29:45)
- She asked Steve Harlan if he was 10 times smarter than her and he said no and she then asked then why do you make 10 times more than me? (30:40)
First Entrepreneurial Venture
- She then went out on her own with Sherry Turner and started a construction company and KPMG was first client (31:20)
- Was fired three years later (32:50)
- She said that she loved construction and taking “blue collar tradespeople and combining them with white collar business people” because she was taught how to communicate with both audiences well (34:00)
- Superintendents were encouraged to stay on with her (35:45)
rand* construction Origins
- Started company with Mark Anderson in 1989 and had advantage of small company (36:50)
- Oliver Carr Co. & KPMG were initial clients (38:20)
- Built reputation for interior construction excellence (39:15)
- Bonding requirement were heavy on financial statements (39:45)
- 1990-91 they had less overhead and were able to forge through since they were small (40:00)
- Lagging indicator and reached a cliff (41:10)
- Mark Anderson left in 1995 to start a consulting practice (41:45)
- Stayed the course through the financial challenges and grew the business herself (42:20)
Cancer Struggle
- Had tremendous support from family and friends (42:45)
- Seven surgeries and several rounds of chemotherapy (43:40)
- Jon Couch, a new partner, stepped into the role of taking over for her during her health crisis (44:10)
- Couch was so effective that he actually became stronger as he took on more responsibilities (44:50)
Geographical Growth
- 2009- Another “cliff” to avoid and decided to grow with new offices in Atlanta, Denver, Austin, and Dallas (46:10)
- Expansion was for the “wrong” reasons (46:50)
- Leadership and management mistakes made- Decided to take people from home office to Austin and it became evident that bringing the “home philosophy” to the regional offices (47:50)
- Be among the top 3 in office construction in each city where they had expanded (48:20)
- Exported culture to regional offices (48:50)
- Growth was arithmetic originally and evolved to become exponential (49:30)
Watershed Projects
- Akin Gump law firm project on New Hampshire Ave., NW in Washington, DC- First $10MM project (50:50)
- 2014 pursuit of Washington Post project after her partner, Jon Couch, passed away (52:40)
- 2020- Won Marriott Headquarters project in Bethesda, MD- $100MM project (53:45)
- Trammell Crow Project- $85MM project (54:45)
- GSA potential (55:45)
Building Teams
- Zig Ziglar- “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” (57:20)
- She made sure people knew that she cared (58:15)
Company Philosophy
- Modus Operandi is Preparation- Think around corners (59:00)
- Never been sued (59:30)
- Reputation is critical (59:15)
Women Leadership
- Women have better “emotional quotient” than men (1:01:40)
- Network of female friends- “Wine Down” group founded it 25 years ago (1:02:10)
- CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) on steroids- Members were all former Presidents at CREW (1:03:20)
- Diversity is being looked at seriously for the first time today in all of corporate America (1:04:50)
- “Women can be a “great Mom” and a “great professional” however not much else like leisure or other distractions” (1:08:20)
- “Ask for feedback- Men are afraid to share their feelings because of reactions- Give honest feedback” (1:10:00)
Company Values
- Dedication- Put heart and soul into work (1:12:20)
- Creativity- Fuel allowing someone to be different (1:12:50)
- Marriott project (1:13:45)
- Walker & Dunlop project (1:14:20)
- Use creative juices (1:15:20)
- Excellence (1:15:30)
- Teamwork (1:17:10)
- Stewardship- Table is considerably longer for decision making (1:18:20)
Pandemic Impact
- Unresolved HR issues (1:19:45)
- Collaboration is critical so office use is important for emotional connection (1:20:40)
- How will cities function? (1:22:50)
Diversity
- Golden opportunity for women and people of color (1:23:50)
- Responsibility to educate people that may be placed in positions that may be a stretch for them (1:24:10)
- Dos and Don’ts for learning (1:25:10)
- rand is “gender blind” such that she competes directly with all firms not prejudging with her “women owned” status (1:25:50)
- Corporate Director of the year- funded a class at HBS to teach women to be corporate directors (1:26:50)
- 175 women in program from 14 countries (1:28:20)
Influences
Multidisciplinary Thinking
- Peter Kaufman Speech-Multidisciplinary Thinking (1:30:30)
- “To understand is to know what to do”
- “Mirrored reciprocation”
- “trustworthy, principled, courageous, competent, loyal, kind, understanding, forgiving, unselfish”
- “Dogged incremental constant progress over a long time frame” (1:32:30)
Surprising Events
- Fell into entrepreneurship and learned that she had this skill to lead and operate a company (1:33:40)
- Surprised how mean people could be earlier in her career (1:34:25)
- Surprised how kind people were when she had cancer (1:34:30)
Volunteer Activities
- Purpose driven leadership- intentional process (1:36:50)
- Long list of organizations (see above bio) (1:37:30)
- Story about sitting next to Janet Yellen at the Federal Reserve Board (1:38:45)
- Cites father’s statement of “Leave things better than you found them” (1:40:15)
Life Priorities
- Five grandsons (1:42:20)
- Pride in her work at rand (1:43:10)
25 yr. old advice Billboard Statement
- “Never let anyone define who you are” (1:43:45)
- “Life is short. Make it worth living.” (1:44:20)
Postscript
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