A Leader with Purpose | Arlene Sarkoyan

By providing these businesses with outstanding support, the expectation is that, in turn, these businesses will provide and extend extraordinary services to S3H. One such network partner is Patricia Farley, who owns SW Paving. Another woman-owned business that S3H does business with is Energy Mechanical Insulation (EMI). This woman-owned business installs insulation for ductwork, piping, and mechanical equipment such as pumps and heat exchangers.

Motivating Leaders

The steadfast leader aspires to mentor, inspire, motivate, and empower team members at S3H to become great leaders as the torch will eventually pass. S3H provides opportunities to future leaders by hiring talented individuals from a pool of an ever-decreasing workforce who are willing to learn and grow in the business. Once these gifted individuals are molded by S3H’s culture, they will gradually develop leadership skills as they acquire knowledge and experience to help build successful construction projects. S3H employs very talented female employees in its accounting, project management, and detailing departments who could one day achieve great success and become department leaders or may potentially move into other businesses and become highly successful.

“It takes serious time and effort to be successful. One key factor for success is to hire the right people and empower them to perform at their best. It is almost impossible for any one person to do everything in a large successful business environment,” says Arlene. “I focus on the things that will grow and prosper S3H, such as the administrative, marketing, networking, planning and implementation parts of the business, including banking and insurances. I perform tasks that I know I am good at and focus on the ones that I enjoy performing. I defer the technical and accounting parts of the business to our capable team members who thrive within their niche talents. A company is only as good as its weakest link. Every department manager should be led by an individual who is the best person for that task in the organization.”

Building A Brand

S3H performs exceptionally well in the negotiated HVAC and Plumbing Design-Assist world. With significant influence in specifying certain design elements during the early stages of building design and pre-construction process, the Project Architect and its consultants emphasize LEED and Global Green building strategies. Since S3H has performed many LEED and Green rated projects, they are often asked by building owners to help them decide on certain LEED and Green strategic elements related to their projects which may impact Design Architect’s and consultant’s presentations. In that sense, “Owners tend to listen to what we have to say. As the Mechanical Contractor on a project, we are typically delegated to implement the necessary strategies that make a building LEED compliant and Green rated. We, therefore, take this task very seriously,” adds Arlene. “In the past three years and specifically after the pandemic, it has been our experience that building Owners are being more receptive in having their buildings acquire high LEED accreditation (Gold or Platinum) than ever before. In the past, most Owners opted to perform a cost analysis to rationalize the implementation of LEED strategies. However, since the pandemic, it has become apparent to project Owners that using LEED strategies is now a must for building a successful project.”

S3H focuses on providing HVAC and Plumbing services to select clientele within the framework of a negotiated Design-Assist process. S3H primarily performs highly sophisticated projects with “Cost Plus Fee” contracts (with or without GMP or Guaranteed Maximum Price), drastically limiting their competition. “This process lets us concentrate on properly performing our work within the proper context for complex mechanical systems. Due to unprecedented and unrelenting material and commodities price escalations, it has become very difficult for S3H to provide guaranteed lump sum pricing to our clients as material prices for steel and copper keep fluctuating on a daily basis,” explains Arlene. S3H has been performing contracts on a Cost-plus percentage fee basis. This contractual agreement ensures that S3H is not at risk and could make a guaranteed profit. At the same time, S3H does everything within its influence to properly manage the construction process and minimize Project Owner’s risk due to material escalation and labor productivity impacts. Contractors are always the first to hear if material price escalation will occur. “Therefore, as custodians of building Owner’s interests, it becomes our responsibility to ensure that materials are procured before price escalations.”