DCG Blog

I have always believed that to enjoy the fruits of a truly great company you must create both a Vision and a Culture that inspires people. A company’s Vision and Culture should inspire people to understand that their interest is ALWAYS best served when they place the interests of others above their own. A great company’s Vision and Culture should aspire to serve a purpose greater than them. To rest in the reality that, as I’ve said for over 20 years, “Do this, and the money will take care of itself.”

Dutra Cerro Graden’s Vision is to “Create Communities of Value.”
After spending two decades in the real estate and development business, I became convinced that simply converting underutilized real property to a higher form of development, while positive for a community, did not necessarily optimize its value. Instead, it was during my four-year term on the Fremont City Council (2002-2006) and extensive experience with religious institutions, non-profit cultural and social service entities, and school and college districts that convinced me there were valuable institutions that had historically provided incredible value to communities. Unfortunately, these organizations very existence was progressively being challenged with severe economic and financial challenges.

Despite economic challenges, these same institutions were often blessed with significant real property assets that could be used to revitalize or realign their Mission. Sadly, these organizations lacked the expertise to know how to utilize their assets in pursuit of their mission. My dream – or Vision – was to create a company that would bring commercial real estate and development expertise to partner with these entities. In doing so, they might be able to use their key assets to more efficiently and effectively further their Missions. My Vision was for them to flourish in their respective Missions to bring revitalization, education, hope, healing, enlightenment and prosperity to those they served. I wanted to help financially challenged organizations “Create Communities of Value” in a way that other’s were not.

My desire to “Create Communities of Value” extends to the very Culture of our company.
Throughout my real estate and development career I've found that truly successful people are those who understand the importance of what I call the two "C's."

Competence & Conscientiousness
Competence is important to a company’s Vision and Culture because people with whom they work must be convinced that they know what they are doing. Conversely, competence is not enough because people want to know not only that you are well versed and experienced in what you do, but that you truly care about who they are as people and what they are trying to achieve. This is what I call conscientiousness (the second “C”).

People who are conscientiousness understand that you must first care about the people you work both with and for, and secondly are committed to seeing that they are well served…even if it means the loss of some short term financial objective.

Care about people and the money will take care of itself.

BUT...conscientiousness alone is not enough because as much as people may like and trust you, they must also feel confident that you are competent enough to get the job done. This is a reasonable expectation and one for which people should rightly be held accountable.

When you find people who are both Competent and Conscientiousness, they are UNSTOPPABLE. These are the people we hire at Dutra Cerro Graden. And while many aspire, only a few are chosen!

At Dutra Cerro Graden, we are committed to our Vision and Culture. We are similarly committed to partner with individuals and organizations that have dedicated their lives to making our communities a better place to live. And while we are certainly cognizant of our need to meet our financial obligations – and we do (frankly speaking) - if our efforts only lead to “Creating Communities of Value”…than we are convinced that we will have achieved true “success” at a level that others only dream of.