Of all the wonderfully amazing tools that we use in a day, none is as complex and amazing as the human brain. Every other tool, whether physical or digital that we use today, is but a product of the human brain’s imagination and innovation power. Rafael Dietsch, CEO & Founder, of GenXC Group, concurs. He believes that the most important tool his team uses is their engineering brains. One of the things that he admires about Elon Musk and his teams is how much they leverage technology that has become affordable. Technology that is reliable to perform a task or function that otherwise needs a piece of equipment that is much more expensive. At GenXC, he follows a similar approach. His core team expands the use of multiple technologies and leverages the internal systems and combines all that information and makes it useful for the rest of the team. This allows them to accelerate how information (hand-offs) is passed between team members effectively reducing the time and investment required to accomplish milestones and the overall project. This also allows them to provide a better service and keep their prices competitive.
A Steady Growth
It took Rafael about 6 years to take GenXC on the doorway to success. This was achieved due to his and his team’s consistent efforts. One has to show up every day, do what is right, understand their industry to the best of their possibility, and only do projects that make business sense. This, of course, is easier said than done! Especially at the beginning of a new business where an entrepreneur is focused on growing. It might feel like they need every opportunity available, but the reality is that one bad opportunity can set the business back several years.
The success mantra, as per Rafael is “Make sure you have the right team for the job and that you partner with the right people and companies. Great opportunities with the wrong partnership are undoubtedly a recipe for disaster. It might look good at first but eventually, these will fall apart.”
The cornerstone of GenXC is the delivery of high-quality engineering services and industry-leading solutions geared toward streamlined processes and timely delivery to their clients. GenXC’s operations started in 2016, working with subcontracting firms in the field of Make-Ready Engineering (‘MRE’), Pole Loading Analysis (‘PLA’), and Fielding Surveying. After exceeding client expectations on projects in the southeastern United States, GenXC was invited to consult and head multiple projects, expanding across the continental United States – as far as California. Their MRE, PLA & Fielding department became the bedrock from which they expanded their capabilities.
A Focus-Driven Leader
Rafael is the design and creative force behind the institution’s products and services. He leads by example as he is the first one to start the day and the last one to leave the office. A hands-on leader, he has no problem working side by side with any area of the company. He encourages team efforts and a family environment; many of GenXC’s employees that have worked in other companies have mentioned that the team truly feels different from other companies and that they feel they are really part of the GenXC family. “We have a highly experienced executive team and they have been the key to the success of the company,” he says.
He encourages and supports innovation. GenXC has been able to be ahead of the competition because Rafael and his team are constantly looking for the best tools for the job and when they don’t exist, they innovate and create those tools. They currently have several proprietary tools that give them a competitive advantage over some of their competitors.
Rafael often tells his team that their goal is to exceed customers’ expectations. Simply delivering a project based on project specifications is just not enough for him. “Our customers are already paying us to deliver to their expectations! We need to push ourselves to go beyond those! I don’t necessarily mean to go outside the project scope as this wouldn’t be fair to us. But this helps us close the next business, it is directly related to the effort of each team member, and is important that they feel part of this effort,” he asserts.
Due to the integration of several of their systems, GenXC can provide substantial analysis by correlating this data and then leverage it to provide their customers with additional useful information about their network or build that otherwise would not be possible. Their integrated solution gives them the opportunity to give the customers something extra. They give them “the extra mile”.
Growing as a Leader
It is often said that “the journey” is part of the experience. From his regulatory side, Rafael learned that there is often more than one perspective to every problem. This undoubtedly made him a better leader as he’s always open to other points of view.
From his corporate experience, he was blessed to be a part of an organization that focused on getting the right data and supporting your ideas with data. This experience helped him strengthen that aspect that he learned from his career.
From his years in business, he has learned that there is more than one way to make a business proposition a win-win situation for all parties involved. When you are doing business honestly, people can feel the difference and work with you to get you closer to that win-win scenario. This means that there will be occasions where the business might not make sense. If that is the case, and all scenarios have been on the table, then it is time to walk away from that opportunity because it is not a good fit for the company.
Rafael is very open to new partnerships with other companies and customers. “I always say in my conversations that our partnerships are two-way.” “I encourage our partners to grow and expand with us. We help our customers not only with the services we provide, but also trying to drive new business opportunities for them,” he says.
Helping Employees Grow
GenXC Group has established continuous education programs implemented where training has become a part of the company culture. They established GenXC University almost 5 years ago and it has become a key ingredient for their success. It has evolved to practically an individual entity. Part of GenXC’s culture is to treat each other like family and this entity plays an essential role in their personal and professional growth. “We encourage our team members to participate in these programs. Their direct leaders believe they will benefit from some of the classes that are assigned to them. This also allowed many people to discover another area of the company where they are a better fit or that they would like to learn,” clarifies Rafael. Another important aspect is that although most of the training is focused on business, some of these programs are also dedicated to personal growth.
Talking about the use of six sigma, he says that GenXC uses an interesting approach; they leverage a lot of the six sigma tools with a twist to accelerate some of these results by customizing some of these tools to their business. Everyone in a supervisory role understands the importance of comprehending their respective metrics, their contributions to the project, and the ultimate project goal.
Words of Wisdom
Here’s what Rafael has to say to young entrepreneurs:
“In any business, it’s important to pay attention to the small changes in the industry. This allows leaders and companies to adapt to them and thrive as the market evolves.”
“Treat all your customers (internal and external) with respect and be fair. This is key for long-term relationships and directly related to the effectiveness of the team. Everyone cooperates when they feel treated with respect, and they feel they are part of the solution.”
Upcoming Plans
Being ahead of the competition on the services, quality, and delivery times for their projects has always been the advantage that GenXC has enjoyed. Being ahead in any industry takes a lot of dedication and is not easy. This in part has been possible due to the company culture of treating everyone with respect (like family) and not being afraid of innovation.
The GenXC team is excited by its current opportunities and projects. Their industry is exploding, and they are well-positioned to collaborate in full turn-key projects for their customers. “We have carefully built the teams and tools we needed to support our customers’ projects completely with in-house resources. This not only benefits our customers’ projects because we will always do the right thing for their projects and second because we control the quality and schedule. Leveraging our internal resources, we also keep costs reasonable for our customers,” concludes Rafael.
