Ok time for some free advice…. And this would be thanks to a recent episode of The Office where the newly formed Michael Scott Paper Company learned a good lesson. Anyway, in some segments of our industry times are tough. There’s no disputing that. But it is the reaction to those times that is probably making it worse. Basically the key here is simple. You cannot sell yourself out of this malaise. You can lower prices all you want but that won’t help you survive or be in any position to thrive once the worm turns. Smart companies are making the hard decisions based on the fact the sales pie is smaller- instead of dropping numbers for volume they are taking other approaches like cost controls to stave off the effects. If you watched The Office (and that clip is NOT on line dang it) you will see Michael’s accountant explain to him that you can’t have sales without profits…. (he started a new company and undercut his old company everywhere to get business. Then his accountant had to point out to him he was not doing business smartly… ) Seriously it should be required viewing for everyone…
Elsewhere…
-- And remember this blog is ME talking…. Representing my views…
-- Once again the guys from DOE are in the news and once again they are making absolute fools of themselves. I swear that department needs fresh blood so badly it’s not even funny. Here’s the latest.
Quote from Richard Karney DOE:
He also added, "Marc [LaFrance from DOE] and I joke that on the commercial side we should just mandate low-E. The industry tap dances around that."
OK, let’s go to work here…. First off guys its 2009 and not 1990. In 1990, Low E was new and confusing and people had many issues with it. (that’s where he is probably getting his intel) In 2009 Low E is established and good. People understand how to run it. You have certified and preferred fabricator programs. It is legit. So that said, the industry would LOVE Low E being pushed- however the industry does not TRUST YOU. Why? Because neither of you listen to the industry! You listen to people like Garrett Stone (a lawyer) and the NFRC. If you would talk to some of the truly brilliant people in our industry who know Low E (Start with Don McCann at Viracon, Chris Dolan at Guardian, Ted Krantz at PPG, Joel Smith at Arch, Jay Phillips or Doug Zacharias at Oldcastle and I could go on and on and on…) you would understand it better. The fear actually is if you two knuckleheads would get your way, you’d probably hamhand the implementation of this by mandating that everyone must use a certain type of Cardinal Low E (wait did I just say that out loud) and leave all others behind. Or you would muck it up by adding some additional cost (and truly un-needed) program run by your pals at the NFRC.
I guarantee if you actually reached out to the right people and groups you COULD get this done. Instead you’ll keep making flippant remarks and doing nothing to really improve this issue. Put your money where your mouth is guys and I think you’ll be stunned. Come on and join us here in 2009….
-- Is everybody ready for LEED 2009? Does that mean that people will stop using LEED 1.0 now? On LEED, I read a blurb from an architect mad that a company he wanted to use because they were only 30 miles away had to send an expert from 900 miles away to deal with one of his problems… he felt that was a violation of LEED…. So much so that he wanted to throw the company out of the specs. My gosh some people are really bizarre eh?
-- Movie alert… the sequel to Wall Street is coming… complete with Michael Douglass back in the role of Gordon Gekko…. Wall Street was one of the best movies of the 80’s (for me at least) and I’ll be curious to see how they bring it back…. And if Charlie Sheen is in there somewhere too… and don’t forget one of the great lines in that flick… “Greed… for the lack of a better word is good…” ah man the whole movie- fantastic.. hope they don’t screw up its legacy with a bad sequel…
-- In San Fran at AIA… I just got back from the show “floor” though it’s not a floor- its 3 separate buildings! Ugh… I’ll have a post mortem on this debacle when it’s done. I never thought a show floor could be as bad as the San Antonio “kids table” debacle of 2 years ago… but it looks like it has been topped!
-- Last, I know some of you only check this blog out on Thursday and Friday- so a heads up that I had a post on Monday of this week… it concerns a Senator, a drama queen, and decisions that were made at 3AM… check it out below this post.
No links this week… sorry…
Video of the Week
Last week the NFL schedule for 2009 came out and there was a lot of controversy. Jimmy Kimmel has the details here…
4 comments:
Max,
It doesn't really surprise me that DOE continues to ride the same old horse (hopefully they won't enter it in the Kentucky Derby this week-end, . . . it will be another non-winner). It appears nothing has changed since the day we (an elite and informed team from the commercial glass industry) met with the leadership of DOE several years ago. Great meeting. The theme was "you can talk, but you can't make me listen!".
Stan-
Thanks for the post- you caught me as I run out the door to AIA... but I remember that meeting very well... I remember the looks on their faces when Don McCann showed them the actual size and scope of projects that are done with Low E and so on. I also remember that 5 minutes after the meeting was over the NFRC had an announcement with the California deal, basically rendering our meeting moot and proving these guys are in someone else's pockets.
Thanks for the post- maybe someday they'll realize that they back a horse ready for the glue factory!!
At the end of the office episode last week didn't michael end up getting his job back with full benefits, and also get jobs for pam and ryan too. So by under selling dunder mifflin he got his job back and a jobs for his other employees of the michael scott peper company. So in a way by under selling it worked out for him.
True.. but his company did go under...
Thanks for the post!!
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