Glass World Cup Kicks Off

Week 1 of the World Cup of Glass is now underway… Here’s the set up.  I selected 12 countries, and broke them into 3 groups.  Each week I’ll look at the 4 countries in that division and then decide on a winner.  Then 4 weeks from now we’ll break down the final 3.  So to kick it off, this week’s group is Germany, Finland, Canada, and Israel.  (And if you are keeping score at home, as I know all of you are, the other two groups are USA, Russia, Spain, and Japan… and China, Italy, Korea, and Mexico)

The first group really has some serious players.  Germany brings in the precision equipment that comes with so much respect, but how much have they done with regards to glass products and efficiency?  Germany is also tremendous code wise (and I wish the US would follow) as well as the host of the big glasstec show every other year. Finland is another machinery star, so many of us in this industry grew up on tempering ovens made there, plus Finland has the education side with Glass Processing Days.  Canada is a favorite of mine because I love the people there, 99% of them as classy and cool as they come, and there’s been some solid technology coming from the north but really the strength there is being able to implement great stuff, not develop it.  And Israel, a tiny country doing amazing things, its flagships of solar and digital printing are really making serious waves.  For the size of the country, I’d wager that no area does more with less.  Picking a winner from this group was brutal.  What I did was award points in each category 4,3,2,1 and the country with the most won.  The categories are innovation (what have they developed and brought to the markets, did they make a difference?), quality (what they do produce or install, is it top notch?), products (are the products mainstream, something that now is a must have?), and industry support (support of trade shows like GlassBuild and industry trades).  And the final breakdown for this group was:

Germany        14

Israel              11

Canada           9

Finland           6

So Germany moves on…. its strength in innovation and quality was too much for the rest of the group to overcome.  And this little project/series of mine was much more challenging than I thought!!  Fun, but really tougher than expected.  If you have insights or opinions, feel free to share them.  Next week, we do it again with group 2.

Elsewhere…

--  You all know I am not a big fan of Google, but this past week I had a video conference call using a Google+ hangout instead of Skype or GotoMeeting and it was super.  Great quality and sound.  So there’s the first redeeming quality of the Google+ platform for you!

--  Did you know that this year is the 20^th anniversary of the middle movie of the Mighty Ducks trilogy?  The reason this is relevant to our industry?  Well a very well done oral history was published on it and as I am reading it, one of the main characters in this story was Garrette Henson.  Now my mind started to race… could it be the same guy who’s the force behind Viracon’s sales success?  I know he spells his name differently, but maybe he tweaked it for Hollywood.  Plus the time frame makes sense and the shooting location of Minnesota makes me think we may have a Hollywood actor in our midst...  Oh and if you like oral histories this is a good one.

--  Katy Devlin’s heads up on the lead paint rule for commercial needs to be taken very seriously.  Believe me, I was there on the residential side when it launched over there and it was an absolute boondoggle. 

--  Last this week, this “Great Glazing” that Glass Magazine profiled here- the Prada storefront really looks amazing.  That is one job I’d like to see in person because the pictures blow me away- I could only imagine how great it must look in real life.  Congrats to all involved there.

  

LINKS of the WEEK

--  When did the whole “Senior Prank” thing start in High School… wasn’t around when I was in… but anyway, this one sounded pretty good.

--  These do have potential to be very comfortable slippers…

--  Really neat and creative article here- the 50 states of the US if they were High School kids.

VIDEO of the WEEK

This may get pulled from youtube, hopefully it doesn’t… amazing header goal from Robin Van Persie in the Netherlands huge 5-1 win over Spain.  It’s a great effort!!