Taking
advantage of the situation
The myriad uses of concrete are
certainly fascinating, but it's the people that keep me passionate
about this industry. This month, we're off again on our concrete
tour of America-to visit contractors rather than the projects
we stopped by in August. This is our "Contractors to
Watch" feature, where we look' in on three successful
concrete contractors and what they are doing right to keep
their businesses thriving.
Looking
for the most creative contractor in the most creative sector
of our industry took us to (where else?) California. Tom
Ralston and Ralston Concrete have developed a reputation
for quality and creativity in decorative concrete that is
unsurpassed. (See some of his work on page 23 of CONCRETE
CONSTRUCTION, May 2002.) Joe Nasvik, who visited Ralston
in Santa Cruz just prior to this summer's CEO Leadership Forum,
has always insisted that it is the capacity for creativity
in decorative concrete that inspires contractors to come up
with new ways to use the materials. Ralston is the
epitome of that principle, inspiring even our photographer,
who posed Ralston with his sample panels.
| Contractors are doing something
right to keep their businesses thriving. |
Our next stop is the
nation's heartland, where the team at Garber Brothers Precision
Concrete has developed some unique ways to focus their employees
on productivity and profits. Headquartered in a converted
farm amidst a seemingly endless sea of soybean and cornfields,
these are country people who know about hard work and personal
responsibility. Company president Lee Clark and company founder
Steve Garber have based their management style around these
traits, with incentive programs, spin-off corporations, and
a Web-based approach to communicating. For example, they formed
separate corporations to handle materials, training, and repair
work. The person in charge of each of these enterprises both
accepts the responsibility for success and shares in the fruits
of his labor, an approach guaranteed to provide motivation.
Our journey lands us finally in
the state with the nation's highest percentage of concrete
homes, where we visit a Florida contractor who has not followed
the pack, focusing instead on more profitable commercial work.
Bill Willcox's company, Solid Foundation of Palm Beach, has
succeeded through perseverance and by relying on another statistic
in which the Sunshine State leads the nation: its population
of hardworking, self-motivated Latinos. Willcox has found
that it's relatively easy to train workers and subs and get
a quality product when they truly want to work.
These three companies demonstrate
that good companies don't falter during slower economic times.
Rather than focusing on the pessimism that comes from much
of the media, they are taking advantage of their own situation
to prosper and to develop fulfilled and motivated employees.
Contractors expect ups and downs, and they see them on the
jobsite every day, but they remain cynically optimistic about
tomorrow.
William D. Palmer Jr. /
Editor in Chief
Concrete Construction >
October 2002
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