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Company Culture
That Focuses on Growth

Northpoint Asset Management sees its culture
as a crucial factor to its success.

When the real estate market crashed in 2008, John Laviter, chairman and CEO of Northpoint Asset Management, wasn’t surprised. Before the financial crisis, he was a general manager at a private equity firm and had raised the alarm about real estate market risk well before the Great Recession. But his supervisor wanted to stick to the firm’s strategy. That experience set Laviter on the path to start his own real estate firm.

“I didn’t want to be placed in that situation again,” Laviter recalls. So, in 2006, he and co-founder Adam Haleck launched Northpoint. The real estate investment firm soon added property management and sales to the mix. That diversification was a good call. When the housing crash happened two years later, Northpoint served the surging demand for property management, as people who couldn’t sell their homes decided to rent the properties instead.

CULTIVATING CULTURE

Macro conditions are important to a company’s success, but culture is the real growth engine, Laviter says. “In the beginning, it’s the hard skills that get you somewhere, but much like an individual’s career, as the company matures, it’s the soft skills that really get you ahead,” he says. Laviter is serious about company culture. While executive bios often focus on qualifications and experience, Laviter’s has a heavy focus on factors like mindset, honesty, fairness, and unbiased strategic decision making.

At a time when companies in all industries are being asked to weigh in on social and cultural issues, Laviter finds that focusing on shared purpose helps to unite. “Businesses should concentrate on the end goal of maximizing shareholder value by providing the best product or service,” he says.

The hiring process backs that culture. Laviter reviews every new hire—no small feat in a company trending toward 500 people—and compensation is based on performance.

MANAGING GROWTH

Many companies strive for growth, but it comes with its own challenges. Northpoint is taking things in stride. Hiring has been tough for some companies in the tight labor market, yet Northpoint ramped up hiring tenfold while keeping turnover near zero.

Laviter is still focused on maintaining company culture. “It’s tough to establish and delicate to change,” he says. He’s proud to set an example, noting that all four of Northpoint’s original partners have remained in place for more than 17 years. “It is hard to keep a long partnership like that. It requires an enormous amount of loyalty, willingness to roll with each other’s eccentricities, and appreciation for their strengths,” he says.

216% 3-Year Growth

12.7% Client Increase

2006 Year Founded

30 Locations