History Maker Homes is one of North Texas' largest affordable-home builders. Recipient of the prestigious National Housing Quality Award, the company is operated by the fourth generation of family ownership and management. Founded in 1949, History Maker Homes had revenues of $120 million in 2005.

History Maker Homes had established itself as a consistent performer in its local marketplace. After fifty years in business, fourth generation President Nelson Mitchell took over management of the organization as annual growth had slowed to 9%. He perceived an opportunity to transform the company into a high performance organization, become more competitive, and jumpstart growth. However, the existing management team and operating infrastructure were not well suited to reinvent the business. To succeed, History Maker Homes would need to innovate its business model, better coordinate the efforts of its functional departments, and create an efficient execution methodology for its managers and workers with a focus on personal performance and accountability. These changes would represent a potentially difficult transformation of the company's established "traditional" culture.

Working in collaboration with Stagen, History Maker Homes reorganized their leadership team and implemented the organizational changes needed to driver high performance. The company now benefits from a cross-functional collaborative structure that allows for the appropriate level of delegation and execution. With input from Stagen, History Maker Homes' executive team crafted a list of strategic themes, one-year initiatives, and quarterly objectives. Stagen also helped implement a new strategic planning system that focuses senior managers on a single set of annual initiatives while improving employee accountability.

To measure progress, performance metrics were established for both individual employees and groups. A comprehensive balanced scorecard-type dashboard system was installed that provides a quantitative method of assessing performance on a quarterly basis utilizing Web-based technology that streamlines data collection. Stagen helped develop a communication strategy tuned for different audiences (e.g. management vs. laborers & contractors), provided training, and assisted with the roll out programs.

The company's revenues increased from $58 million to $120 million while working with Stagen over a two-year period. Importantly, the significant growth trend-which has not negatively impacted quality-is expected to be sustainable over the long term in part due to a successful adaptive change initiative that transformed a sleepy traditional culture into a competitive, innovative, high performance workplace. The company expects the growth trend to continue with $170 million in revenue forecast for 2006.