As we enter 2026, with the excitement of the holidays behind us, we ask ourselves, what do we need to do to ensure that the best is yet to come? In reflecting on the start of another year, we have asked ourselves, what do we need to do to succeed? How can we do things better? How can we be better? … These are age-old questions that we venture every business leader has asked of themselves and their team, regardless of their role or specific department inside the organization.
But in reflecting on the triumphs and challenges of the past year, there are a few insights that we would like to share, that in part answer these age-old queries. While it may not provide the exact tactical information for your specific business, we believe these insights will, in fact, help to point us all in the right direction!
You may be surprised, or even disappointed, when you realize that the answers to these questions really have been in front of you all along, but these actions can be key to driving success in any organization.
The first of the golden rules to drive success is simply … Remember to focus on your customer! Not just remembering who you sell to, or who you provide services for, but truly understanding your customer. This goes far beyond the names of the contacts that you engage with, or the location of their office or plant, but truly understand your customer! Why are they in business? … What is their mission and vision for their business? … How do they deliver value to their customers? And more specifically, what are their needs and how can you better support them? How can you deliver even more value to them?
In always remembering to focus on your customer, you can understand who they are as a company, why and how they do business, and most importantly, how you can help them be better at what they do! This may seem obvious, but many businesses can quickly lose track of this focus and become distracted by other things. Never lose focus on your customer!
The second golden rule of success … Invest in your team!! For some organizations it can be easy to remember that the real value of the company, and what drives the business, is your team. Having “grown up” in the consulting engineering world, it always seemed so natural, and obvious, that we have a responsibility to learn from those around us, and to teach the next generation. As a “mentor – apprentice” profession, where you are required to learn the practice by working under the tutelage of a licensed Professional Engineer, it was engrained in us from the start. That simple idea, whether you phrase it as “doing for others what was done for you” or “paying it forward,” the professional idea is that we can deliver the greatest value to ourselves, our coworkers, and the organization by teaching and training others to enhance the overall capability and capacity of the organization.
By investing in the training and development of our teams as leaders, it can have a multiplicative effect on the organization. If we were to simply invest in ourselves, the effect would be much smaller, and less significant. In training and educating our teams not only are we investing in our team, but we are building an organizational culture that values our people, emphasizing continuous improvement and professional development. While investing in your team, you will also be surprised what dividends that investment will pay. Studies have shown that performance and productivity both increase when organizations show commitment to investing in their teams.
Whether it is advanced training or certification for a manufacturing role, technical training for designers or engineers, or leadership/business training for managers, there is real value in developing the talent and capabilities of your team. Provide mentors for new team members, or team members in new roles, to help them integrate into the business or role. Investing in your team will enable your organization to not only meet the needs of your customers, but to excel and achieve more than ever before.
The third golden rule for success … Pursue collaboration and teamwork! This rule applies to the organization, both internally and externally. As part of the building and construction industry, we strive to deliver an aesthetically appealing, high-performance, cost-effective, building solution that meets the needs of the user, whether that is a house, an office, a retail building, or a manufacturing facility, and we all have a critical role to play in that process. In the building and construction industry there are very few, if any, who can provide the full solution “in-house” without collaboration, whether it is envisioning and engineering the design, incorporating the latest technology, manufacturing the high-performance building components, or constructing the finished product. We all have our critical role in the process, and collaboration and teamwork are the keys to success! Through collaboration and teamwork, we can achieve far more together than we can apart!
While collaboration and teamwork can take different forms, ranging from simple teamwork between design and manufacturing groups within the organization, to strategic collaboration between businesses within the industry, or simply collaboration within industry associations, all of these enable us to challenge the norm and drive the industry forward.
And finally … Practice these golden rules for success together! When integrating these golden rules for success together in business, there is an opportunity for exponential growth and success! By training your team, and enabling them to better focus on and meet the needs of your customer, then pursing collaboration with your customers, other suppliers and manufacturers, and the construction contractor or builder, a synergy can be achieved where the needs of each partner are better understood, more effectively addressed, and the ultimate needs of the end user are more directly, efficiently, and cost-effectively achieved!
In the end, what we are most proud to say is that, at its core, this is the MiTek way of doing business! Thank you to all our customers, industry partners, and those who we have collaborated with over the years. We are proud of all that we have achieved together and are excited for the future! We cannot wait to see what we can achieve together in 2026. Let’s build for success!!
If you would like to learn more about MiTek, or have any questions, please contact us.