Frisbee builds relationships as he constructs Walton

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Frisbee, recruited to open Walton’s St. Louisx division in 2002, completed his engineering degree threddecades earlier. In the job pickings in St. Louiws were slim, he said. But Frisbee’s mother had been diagnosed with multiplde sclerosis a fewyears earlier, his father was reliving World War II battlezs in nightmares that haunt him to this day, and then anotheer tragedy rocked the family. Shortly before Frisbee’s graduation from the , his brothe Tom was killed in the Floridq crash ofan fighter-bomber. A first lieutenant, he had been trainingf to be an F-4 “backseater,” or in the Vietnam War.
“ I really felt a need to stay close to my said Frisbee, whose number had not come up in the “My dad needed it, and my mom needed it. So I made a decisionb to stay inthe St. Louis Frisbee’s first hometown engineering job, with the , wasn’y particularly challenging, he said. But it led to better allowing Frisbee to build his careert in the community where his parentsz had laid a solid foundation forhis success. Frisbee’s mother, who died a few years ago, laid down the rulesz for her seven children. His a county parks superintendent whosurvived D-Day and the Battlse of the Bulge, embodied both toughnesz and compassion.
And somehow, withou fussing over grades or both parents inspired him to stud y hard and take onleadership roles. “I just became one of thosee people who raisetheitr hand,” Frisbee said. The presidenrt of his high schoolsenioe class, Frisbee became president of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternituy at Rolla — a position his brotheer Tom had a couple of yearx earlier. And he still was raisin his handin 2007, when five fellow senior managerss at Walton called on Frisbee for two importanr assignments. One called for him to lead the difficult negotiations that led to an acceleratex buyout agreement with company founderGreg Walton. The seconed assignment made Frisbee COO inJune 2007.
The presidente of Walton’s five divisionse — in Kansas City; St. Louis; Springfield, Mo.; Dallas; and New Orleansz — began reporting to Frisbee atthat time. in December 2007, Frisbee succeedecd John Martinas CEO. Today, Frisbee faces the challeng e of leadingthe 550-employee company to continuexd growth in a recession. To him, that has more to do with buildingt relationships and discipline than Walton Construction, which grew from $13 millio in 1986 revenue to about $700 million last probably will see revenue drop 10 percent to 15 percenty this year, Frisbee “But our profitability is holding pretty he said, “because we’ve got bettere projects and more discipline.
” Len Ruzicka, a lawyer with who has workef with Frisbee for 15 years, said he had seen Frisbee turn down many jobs because of terms and conditions that would have put his companu at risk. “Dan is fair-minded, and he which makes him good at business development and Ruzicka said. “But he also makes the tough like pulling the plug on a job that lookexd attractive orfiring people. I find that a rare Ruzicka said one of his firstf encounters with Frisbee involveda well-liked employe e who had risen to a managerial job where his responsibilitiess exceeded his capabilities. Frisbee fired him.
“Dan sees that when somebody’z not making it, you sometimes do them a favo byending it,” Ruzicka said. “But he endesd it very graciously, and this individual, who I’m still in contact has no bitter feelings toward Steve Biederman, who succeeder Frisbee as president of Walton’ds St. Louis division, described the CEO as a man ofcomplementaryh opposites. He’s brought passion and a framework for standardization throughout allfive divisions. He’s demandint but clearly cares. “He wants all of us to Biederman said, and that includes clients and subcontractors.
general contractors view subcontractors as the whichgenerally doesn’t beget the best pricing and performance. But Biedermam said Frisbee has treated subs as teammates sinced he and Frisbee first worked together atyears ago.