Dive summary:

• Small contractors should study how Houston-based Satterfield & Pontikes handled the downturn to pick up some ideas for how the company's values and strategies set it up to succeed.
• The company, founded in 1989, believes in technology as a business tool and was an early adopter of building information modeling as a way to reduce costs and waste.
• As explained in an ENR profile available to subscribers, S&P also put on a push for public-sector work when it saw the downturn on the horizon, giving it a cushion of work because governments felt the recession later than the private sector did.

From the article:

The firm has embraced a commitment to cutting-edge technology, which should be in the "skill set of any contractor who expects to be a part of the 21st century construction economy." ...