Carpenter boiled the company�s success down to simple factors: �You work hard. You make the clients happy. You focus on market sectors that make sense. And you deliver. That brings repeat business. That brings reputation.�

Cochrane adds: �We look at ?2009-2010 as when people continued to become more aware of the quality of our people and what we could do. We�re so proud of the Southeast Construction Contractor of the Year award.�

A Recent Past Cochrane may be right. The company is only in its sixth full year of operation as BE&K Building Group.

Formed in 2004, BE&K Building Group brought together BE&K and two firms it already owned—FN Thompson of Charlotte and Suitt Construction of Greenville, S.C.—and a health-care group.

It’s been a steady rise since then.

The company first entered Southeast Construction’s annual Top Contractors ranking in 2006—which represented firms’ revenue for 2005—reporting more than $475 million in revenue for its first full year of operation.

In the magazine’s most recent Top Contractors ranking, BE&K Building Group reported more than $686 million in 2009 regional revenue, or more than 44% than it did its first year, during a still-booming market.

Also, in 2008, Houston-based KBR, purchased Birmingham, Ala.-based BE&K—including the Building Group—for $550 million in cash, ending 35 years of private ownership of BE&K.

Cochrane credits the success the firm has achieved in those few years to its focus on people�both internally and externally�and maintaining that focus even in lean times.

�Our goal is to keep their faith in us, whether they�re owners, architects, subcontractors or vendors,� Cochrane says.

Cochrane�s inclusion of subcontractors as firms BE&K is trying to keep happy isn�t just lip service.

The company anonymously surveys subcontractors at the end of a project to obtain feedback about the performance of its own management team.

BE&K considers subcontractors a customer and wants to learn from them how to do a better job. That�s important, Cochrane says. �We�re in a business where we�ve got to add value or our clients won�t stay with us.�