Russ Walling: Capped downside justifies open collaboration with new partners
Russ Walling · Episode 818 | What Does It Take to Be Successful? with Russ Walli... · Feb 3, 2026 · at 38:03
Russ Walling, owner of an electrical contracting business, discusses his management philosophy regarding business collaboration and managing counterparty risk with host Rob Walling.
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“I tell my people all the time, you know, yeah, we're exposing ourself here. Someone could screw us over with this. If they do, the damage will be X, and then we just won't work with them again, right?”
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“So let's fix it first, and then once we get past it, create that space, it's fixed, everybody's feeling better. Okay, now let's talk about how we got here. Like, what did we do wrong here to make this happen?”
Russ Walling: Pre-construction KPIs based only on won bids drive unprofitable contracts
“The way most construction companies work is, you know, the pre-com people, they are, their KPI is, how much work did you win? And it's like, well, You know, it's, you can win a lot of work that's not very profitable, and I'm not saying their only KPIs should b…”
Russ Walling: Firm avoids public works to focus on relationship-driven clients
“I always tell, tell everyone we want to work with people who want to work with us, not who have to work with us. So like one of the things we don't do a lot of public works because in public works, you throw out a number, whoever's lowest and has the scope, th…”