In the areas of assets, revenues, dividends and business expansion, the heavy highway contractor situated on Uranium Boulevard is a reservation success story to be reckoned with. NECA's business clout has been achieved mainly over the past 15 years due to sound construction operations and wise reinvestment in equipment, General Manager Cary Patterson revealed.

"I would have to say we are the most successful tribal enterprise on the Navajo Nation," Patterson said from the vantage point of his second-floor Shiprock office. "We are the only one who gives dividends back to the tribe."

Those dividends have amounted to more than $13 million over the past 15 years, he noted, earmarked - about $1 million annually -- for Navajo Nation scholarships awarded by the tribe's scholarship office. NECA also gives out its own scholarships to the college-bound, a half-dozen or so per year.

Prior to 1991, NECA struggled with management and operational difficulties that resulted in the public losing its sense of trust in the enterprise, NECA Board President Richard Bowman said. NECA's positive image has achieved restoration, the Enterprise of the Year Award signifies, but it has meant overcoming NECA's near-bankruptcy era.

In the here and now, NECA is a growing heavy highway contractor, building roads, bridges, water lines, water tanks, waste-water systems and other infrastructure throughout the Navajo Nation. In so doing, NECA adheres to emphasize Navajo values of excellence, service and employee development among its 500-strong workforce - while charting the course toward growth that its future certain. NECA's Mission Statement speaks to being "the premier heavy construction contractor serving the Navajo Nation and the public sector of the Four Corners area."

Enterprise Award well earned

Officials on hand for the Enterprise of the Year Award in early February consisted of the enterprise's entire four-man Executive Committee. Presenting the award to Bowman was Ron Solimon, chairman of the Mesa, Ariz.-based NCAIED board.

NCAIED Director of Development Maria Dadgar said NECA has demonstrated philanthropic focus resulting in vast scholarship sums for Navajo students, a large social and economic impact that benefits the tribe, and high financial success in Indian Country. As impressed as she is with NECA's business success, Dadgar said she is equally impressed that NECA sent its Executive Committee to receive the Enterprise of the Year award.

Such attendance demonstrates that NECA believes in its place as a top business enterprise in Indian Country, is committed to longterm success and and wants to share its success story with others, Dadgar said. NECA's turnout also demonstrates that the enterprise supports the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development and its major thrust of recognizing and rewarding business success in Indian Country.

Patterson said the Enterprise of the Year status validates just how "healthy" NECA is as a top tribal enterprise. Blessed with two built-in customers - the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for which NECA build roads and bridges, and the Indian Health Service, for which it builds water lines and waste water systems - NECA is nowhere near "topping out." Patterson did not point to a specific business model NECA follows, but offered that the company tracks costs each week, using Construction Management System software.

Patterson, the operations manager, and all NECA foremen review costs each week, make recommendations on improved production, and keep a yearly goal of expansion in mind.

"Thirteen years ago, when I first arrived, we completed one highway project at a time," Patterson said. "Now, we work on six at a time." One current project is a multiphase paving and highway drainage project, Navajo Route 16, at Navajo Mountain. In addition, NECA has more than 20 work crews just to construct water line and waste-water projects currently in construction.

To help handle its increasing work load, NECA recently purchased Four Corners Precasting Corp. in Farmington, a 23-acre site from which NECA produces concrete manholes, septic tanks, junction boxes, retaining walls and other infrastructural support items. Patterson said the purchase of Four Corners Precasting made sound business sense as NECA was nearly a quarter of the previous owner's business before he decided to retire.

"We're estimating that this purchase will pay for itself in six years," Patterson said.

Bowman said NECA's business plan includes future expansion, once again off-reservation, with a goal to establish a concrete precasting office in Flagstaff. The company is also considering Tuba City for a precasting office.

"We're not going to stop here," Bowman said, commenting that prior to 1991, the company had operational difficulties that harmed its reputation and image. All of that has changed.

"I think NECA's got its name back and is once again trusted," Bowman said.

In the here and now, NECA is more than capable of working on major highway projects, Patterson said. It helps when you have a bonding capacity of more than $75 million, which is up to $25 million for a single project.

One project NECA is keeping an eye on to be a future subcontractor is a 69-mile highway upgrade to four lanes between Shiprock and Tohatchi. However, because the state of New Mexico owns the U.S. 491 project, NECA would not seek to be the general contractor. The tribal enterprise will not sign a waiver of sovereign immunity due to jurisdictional and legal issues involved.

Still, NECA has made government-to-government relationships part of its business expansion plans, Patterson said. Two years ago, the Hopi tribe requested that NECA perform its water line and utility work. NECA also constructed water tanks for the San Carlos Apache tribe.

Giving back to employees

Construction work is seasonal, and NECA averaged 475 employees last year. From April on, NECA employed more than 500 workers: laborers, carpenters, cement finishers, truck drivers, mechanics and others. Most of NECA's $15 million in operational overhead, or $13 million last year, went to employee salaries and wages, Patterson said.

NECA also spent more than $2 million on its capital expense budget to maintain and upgrade heavy equipment. NECA has a fleet of 15 loaders, 10 graders, 10 bulldozers and other heavy machines. NECA also owns an asphalt operation spread over two sites.

During the current fiscal year, NECA has started an employee incentive plan that awards employees for safety and attendance. If an employee stays safe for the year, defined as not needing a doctor's visit, that worker receives 15 cents for every hour worked. Employees also make 10 cents per hour worked for exceptional attendance.

Employee salaries were developed using the federal wage scale, Patterson said. In Arizona, NECA pays employees using the Davis-Bacon scale.

While rewarding employees with incentives is a priority, Patterson said putting retained earnings back into the company for equipment purchasing is critical. NECA was started as an enterprise by Navajo Council resolution in 1972 but it's only been since 1991 that financial success has accrued so rapidly. Reinvesting profit back into NECA has been a key component of that success.

During its successful run of 15 years and counting, NECA's assets have grown more than 600 percent and its revenues more than 400 percent, Patterson said. One well-received financial byproduct of steady success has been a regular flow of dividends to fund Navajo tribal scholarships. And lest it's overlooked: NECA also maintains a healthy and diversified investment portfolio.

For a company involved in constructing six or more highway projects and 200 miles of water lines a year, NECA's assets, revenues and strong, stable workforce -- coupled with the size and infrastructure needs of the Navajo Nation -- combine to give this top tribal enterprise of 2005 a tremendous business upside well into the future.