cover story | lewis group

BREAKFAST with the bosses

"We do as much as anyone in the country on social infrastructure, and we do more than 99 percent of the people in the country. We do it because it’s the right thing to do, (and we also) do it because it’s the profitable thing to do."
— Randall Lewis

BY WILL BIGHAM

TO AN OUTSIDE OBSERVER, the Lewis Company’s periodic employee breakfasts may seem difficult to comprehend.

Every few months, the company’s top brain trust shares breakfast and — more importantly — probes for new ideas with new employees tasked with everyday, but still vital things like leasing apartments and landscaping.

At a recent session, about a dozen employees, mostly young and relatively inexperienced workers, shared theconference room of the company’s main office in Upland with two of the four Lewis brothers, a CEO often called the "fifth brother" and a company vice president.

The new employees were given a brief history of the company, then invited to give input and ask questions "about anything but my weight," as David Linden, a Lewis vice president, explained it to the employees.

The lively back-and-forth between the employees and executives made it clear that the breakfast wasn’t designed solely to boost morale.

One employee who once was a waitress at a seafood restaurant was asked about the minutiae of the eatery’s employee team- building strategy.

Another employee described in detail an obscure complete-body-wrap treatment she suggested should be added to the company’s massage services at its apartments.

Through it all, the executives gave their full attention.

In most companies, the arrangement would seem absurd. But for the family- run Lewis Group of Companies, it’s part of a culture that has been central since its inception in the 1950s.

"Treat people the way you would want to be treated," said John Goodman, the CEO often called the "fifth brother." The hallways of the company’s Upland office are covered floor to ceiling with plaques, proclamations and other awards from politicians, cities and community groups lauding the company’s contributions to the communities in which they build.

"If we do a job we can make the communities better, but it also helps the company," said Randall Lewis, who spearheads the company’s marketing.

"So if we create a better school system in San Bernardino County, it helps in a sense of doing well. But it also helps the business: People want to rent apartments or buy homes in communities with good schools." For a company with a primary focus of residential and commercial development, the Lewises strongly emphasize issues such as education, health and the environment.