Big Hearts & Helping Hands

Deep in the heart of Texas is a company dedicated to excellence in commercial and industrial HVAC service and construction, and devoted to community outreach: Kahn Mechanical Contractors, Inc. of Dallas, Contracting Business magazine’s 2008 Commercial Contractor of the Year.

Kahn Mechanical serves customers in and around the Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX metropolitan area, and its technicians and managers are ready for any task related to commercial service and Design/ Build construction. The company has weathered some storms in its 34-year history, as have many contractors in economically sensitive markets, but for the last 15 years, it has experienced steady growth and become a model community service leader, largely through the pro bono work it dedicates to Dallas Habitat for Humanity.

Josh Kahn, 42, vice president, runs Kahn Mechanical with his mother, Ann Kahn, president. Josh lovingly describes Ann as “the soul of the company,” the person who most looks out for employees’ needs, and spearheads the company’s community service. To Ann, son Josh is “the brains,” the one who keeps the strategic and tactical functions on line with company goals, and keeps the pipeline filled with projects and ideas.

“Ann has an aptitude beyond many people I know in business,” Josh says. “Her personality captivates people, and her principles and values endear clients, vendors, and employees to us. The things I’ve learned about business and people, I’ve learned by watching her example.”

When Ann took over the day-to-day operations, she instituted a motto that explains Kahn Mechanical in a nutshell: “Don’t Stop, Keep Going.”

“Our success starts with our desire to succeed, and a genuine desire to provide the best kind of service we can for our customers, to make them happy, and make them stay with us,” Ann says. “Then, it’s just hard work, from the top down.”

You see plenty of drive and commitment in every corner of the company, garnished with hefty doses of family atmosphere and technical expertise. Team camaraderie, the technical acumen of its 18 technicians, the faithful service of key managers, and Josh and Ann Kahn’s intense desire to make the company better, give it many reasons to open the doors each day.

Dynamic Leadership
If you get a chance to spend a day with Josh Kahn, you’d better bring your running shoes. He’s a bundle of energy, wired for excellence, hungry to implement new ideas, always on the lookout for the next opportunity. Visit a job site with him, and you’d be amazed at his ability to move easily from one technical topic to another. There seems to be no HVAC principle or concept he can’t discuss, or offer an opinion on.

During the mid-80s, he began to study mechanical engineering at Texas A&M, but opted to pursue real-life training within the company. He’s currently enrolled online at University of Phoenix, and is close to a degree in business management.

“The engineering training at A&M was excellent. I learned how to think, research, and solve problems,” Josh recalls. “The beauty of going back to business school now, at age 42, after running a business, is seeing everything that’s been documented related to managing a business: human resources, vendor relationships, client relationships, and business management in general. And the knowledge and experience I’ve acquired by being in the trenches only serves to magnify the learning experience.”

Kahn prefers projects that involve replacements of second and third generation equipment.

“That’s what we love, especially the chance to do some Design/Build on top of the replacement,” Josh says. “The relationship we often have with the engineer is such that if we see an opportunity to improve on the design, he’s open to suggestions. All we’ve got to do is document what we’re suggesting.”

Josh Kahn is a straight talker when it comes to customer relations. “When we encounter a challenge, rather than try to dodge and weave and work our way out of it, we go to the customer and tell them what we’re up against,” he says. “We’re willing to say from day one, ‘here’s what’s going on, here’s the truth.’

“When people ask how we’re going to proceed on a job, my answer is that we’ll know exactly how to do the job when the job’s complete. You can’t know every possible variable a project will bring until you start to work it; you discover so much during the process. Fortunately, we’re able to work nimbly. Being a mid-size company, we’re not so large that we can’t quickly communicate to everyone what’s going on, and we’re not so small that our resources are stretched.”

People Power
The people of Kahn Mechanical are its greatest strengths. Josh Kahn greets his technicians with a friendly “hey, man,” and clearly appreciates their contributions to the organization. In the office, Margie Pannell, Anita Tobias, Denny Rodgers, Charlotte Kahn (Josh’s wife), and Dennis Brisbon keep projects moving forward, and are the center of the company’s daily activity and information. They juggle customer requests, and as the paperwork comes through, capture recommendations or service needs.