Every story begins somewhere. For one of the fastest growing car wash companies last year, that story began at a single location in Houston, Texas, in 1969.

Then, in 1996 Car Wash Partners acquired Mister Car Wash Houston and the new company embarked on a growth trajectory adding locations in seven other markets. In 2007, Mister Car Wash was purchased by Canadian private equity firm ONCAP.

Now, Mister Car Wash has grown to more than 105 car washes, 30 lube shops and more than 4,000 employees. In 2012 alone, the company added 1,000 new employees and 35 new stores across the country.

“We’re still catching our breath from the new stores and employees we brought on board in 2012,” said President and Chief Operating Officer John Lai. “Improving a business, post-acquisition, is a lot harder than buying a business. There are hundreds of micro-details that need to be sorted out.”

When you grow by acquisition rather than building new sites, integration challenges become a big part of what you do. There are legacy systems, different types of equipment, different operational practices, etc. But, most importantly, you need to ensure you carry the company culture through to the newest members of your business while taking time to learn from the company you’ve acquired.

“The pipeline of talent that comes with every deal puts us in a great position to learn as much from them as they do from us. But, merging cultures is not easy and definitely doesn’t happen overnight,” Lai said. “We like to focus on our similarities (which are usually many) rather than our differences.”

A key component to getting buy-in is explaining the reason for the change and helping front-line staff feel comfortable with the new normal. “People can be resistant to change,” Lai said. “Particularly if they’ve settled into a pattern of doing things a certain way. It’s more work, but in the long run it’s the best way to build a sustainable culture.”

For Mister Car Wash, that culture has been heavily focused on valuing employees and their happiness by treating their people right. “We know that if we treat our people right, they’ll deliver an exceptional customer experience, which helps the company overall and creates a win/win for everyone,” Lai said.

In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, he advises to get the right people on the bus, and then figure out where to go — a concept not lost in Mister Car Wash’s approach. They established a team focused on existing operations and the acquisition and integration process that’s taken more than seven years to develop. “We have a very talented team who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and wade into the swamp to implement our road map.”

According to Lai, each acquisition starts with an agreed upon strategic plan between Mister Car Wash and its partners in order to stay disciplined in the execution of the plan. “We use a specific formula to assess whether to move forward or terminate potential deals,” Lai said. “It must be a mutually beneficial deal.”

As the organization has expanded, it became clear that in addition to the standard components to successful growth (hiring the right people, paying well, training well, providing growth opportunities) there were challenges that necessitated organizational structure change.

“One of the biggest lessons has been to decentralize our decision-making and empower those closest to the action,” Lai said. “For example, in operations we now have five regional business managers strategically located throughout the country who are each responsible for their own regions. We couldn’t have done it with only one guy calling all the shots.”

While growth has changed the size of the organization, it’s worked diligently to focus on the core principles that were in place in Houston in 1969.

“It’s most important to stay customer- focused,” Lai said. “All the efficiencies gained through standardizing processes don’t amount to a hill of beans if we lose the creative spirit and the interaction of well-trained and customer-focused associates who have gotten us to where we are today. We have a simple mantra called ‘doing it right’ that’s custom-designed for each wash and lube sector. If that’s executed well, we’ll do great.

“In the end, we’re still washing one car at a time, and we must do that right first. We still have to deal with the same issues as everyone else.”