Jason Dunn

The team of DACS Asphalt & Concrete entered 2021 ready to bust through concrete walls to achieve their goals. And with Jason Dunn leading the charge, there is no doubt that every goal will be accomplished.

Dunn, President of DACS Asphalt & Concrete (DACS), an industry leader, always seeks to find positives among negatives.

“Not only did we capture market share, but my team and I are on the same page and that allowed us to thrive during a brutal time. They are now ready to strive as conditions ease!”

Dunn explained that by taking advantage of industry disruption to attract some of the best talent in our industry across departments and in the field, he believes DACS now has the best sales, operations, finance, and safety departments in the business, along with a very strong talent base in the field.

“Combined with increased and targeted marketing efforts, we grew our large customer base over 50% during 2020, despite COVID-19,” he said.

Dunn emphasized that this would not have been possible without dedication and success from everyone at DACS.

“No one person is responsible for our tremendous accomplishments in 2020. It was the team!”

It is this recognition of the importance of a strong team and the acknowledgment of each person as an individual that has helped to make Dunn the respected leader that he is today.

“Never was there a more important time to emphasize our long-term vision and orientation than in 2020,” he said. “My job was to reiterate our core values, our core focus, and our goals despite market disruption. This left my team on the same page to understand 2020 was a critical part of our path to achieving our goals. This meant the team understood it was our time to be opportunistic, take advantage of disruption, serve our customers better than ever, and capture significant market share.”

He added that the rapid growth of DACS led to the need for capital in the first half of 2020.

“Raising capital during that environment was an intimidating challenge! Fortunately, we plowed ahead, raising the necessary capital from investors at excellent prices and captured significant and attractive government funding that became available as a result of COVID-19. This funding helped us stay on our rapid growth curve.”

He added that it is a daily necessity to move towards the long-term vision, even when steps forward are uncomfortable.

“With a vision in place shared by the full team, required changes are more easily felt as rational versus emotional or personal. As the team proves its relentlessness in pursuit of the vision, resistance to change fades,” Dunn said.

Dunn’s success as a leader is best indicated by the success of his team members with an emphasis on his management team.

“When my management team, including their individual departments, is broadly achieving success, I feel good that my leadership is directionally on point.” Dunn said. “My team members need to be enabled and supported. Critical support includes removing obstacles to team members accomplishing our goals.”

And Dunn is quick to share his insight for being successful: “Whether you will be leading a startup or an inherited organization, start with your long-term vision. Paint the picture for 5 to 10 years out. Then bring that picture closer. A 3-year view for example should be clarified as much as possible with specifics to make it real and visible. Then, sketch what must happen in the first year of your operation to make the necessary progress towards that 3-year view. With your clear picture in mind, create the seats necessary in your organization. Be dispassionate in this creation. Simply focus on what is most efficient as a structure for operating. Now you are ready to find the right people for these right seats. No task is more important than building the right team,” he said. “If this straightforward method is utilized, you will be positioned to be a successful leader in accomplishing nearly any goals established. Further, with the right team, the pursuit will likely be a pleasure!”

Excellent advice to etch in concrete.

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