This article is based around an interview with Donna Hager, CEO and founder of architecture and engineering firm Macan Deve, she built her senior career as an VP engineer working for the world’s largest construction company and then she left. She started her company in 2015 based on some very different ideals, a construction engineering company owned by a woman, initially hiring senior people part time who didn’t want to retire.
“I ended up hiring more senior people who didn’t want to retire, and I hired them part time, as needed. These were the smartest people I knew in engineering and infrastructure. I got great quality and we got little jobs. Finally, people were believing in us, and then I could hire some full-time people, and they got mentored by the more senior ones.”
Donna Hager
The companies mission is to ‘eagerly explore new communities and different ways of thinking and being in order to cultivate a truly global perspective. We are diverse in backgrounds, interests, talents, beliefs and opinions.’ Which becomes more evident when you look at how they hire the people in the team.
Going beyond hiring older people, the company has some other key differences, they are focused on diversity and how to give back to the community and both have helped drive significant growth in the firm. Macan Deve are a certified Women Owned Business Enterprise, they are also focused on how to give back to the community being based in New York they wanted to help people living in the housing projects. Establishing Macan Deve as a certified Section 3 Business Concern means that when the company works with the New York City Housing Authority, they hire people who live in the projects to work on the construction.
This week Inc. Magazine ranked Macan Deve Engineers 479 in its annual Inc. 5000. Under Donna Hager’s leadership, the business has seen a 3-year growth of 956 percent.
Read More: 4 Hudson Valley Companies Named as One of Fastest-Growing in U.S. | https://hudsonvalleypost.com/4-hudson-valley-companies-named-as-one-of-fastest-growing-in-u-s/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Key Takeaways
- Starting a company with experienced older staff, not quite ready for retirement but happy to work part time enabled her to bootstrap the business
- Diversity as a point of difference made the firm stand out and has made for happier staff
- Partnering with local government to hire low income people living in public housing to work on local government projects build business opportunities and tighter relations with the community
Synopsis of an article from Inc.
by Kimberly Weisul
Published 11th August 2020
https://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/macan-deve-engineers-donna-hager-2020-inc5000.html