Looking over the articles in this month’s SBC Magazine I recognized a trend: communication. Of course it’s easy to talk about improving communication and even easier to recognize the need for additional communication, but if we’re really honest with ourselves, how many of us put in the hard work of communicating better?
I know I could improve my communication skills and I certainly know my employees and customers can improve their communication skills. We recently lost a job because the order wasn’t communicated properly. The customer wanted us to build the trusses based on some napkin-prints and we wanted him to drive ¾ of a mile to our office to go over the specifics and sign off on the trusses we were to build. Obviously we didn’t communicate our expectations well enough at the beginning of the relationship.
George Hull offers a great update on the National Framers Council and gives firsthand information of the reasons for creating it and the expectations he has for the group. He stresses the need for communication and collaboration in his business with companies up and down the supply chain. Any CM not currently monitoring the pulse of the National Framers Council ought to check it out and gain a glimpse into the mindset of our customer base and those using the products we create. That kind of information is extremely valuable.
The cover story offers a unique look into a Florida component manufacturer’s way of creating a niche. The article speaks to the strategy behind Universal Timber Structure’s market decisions over the past 40 years and how they’ve evolved as the market has changed. It continues by spanning the life cycle of the Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Celebration, FL. UTS was able to successfully develop relationships with the architect and general contractor on the project and was called in during the design phase to offer their input on a very unique design. Check out the photos on this story to have your idea of trusses put to the test.
Framing a House in Three Days. Not a big deal for those of us in the component industry and certainly not a big deal for those of us who’ve been involved with BCMC Build. However, when you take a step back and look at it from an ‘Average Joe’ perspective, it is a big deal. I’m reminded of a particular taxi ride from the New Orleans airport to our hotel for the site visit meeting a couple years ago. The driver could not believe that we were planning on building a house in two days. I explained that it wouldn’t be ready to live in after two days, but that the basic shape and frame would be in place. He was flabbergasted and still thought our capabilities were amazing, which brings be to my point: we have a communication problem in our industry. We have tremendous capabilities in our industry but we have failed to communicate these opportunities to our customers, our customer’s customers and the market in general! Frankie Ferrero’s article does a great job of articulating a lot of these opportunities, but we as individual CMs must do a better job of synthesizing this information and relaying it to the market place.
And finally, Scott Ward does another amazing job in his Editor’s Message. I’m not saying that because he’s the current SBCA President and I might be trying to flatter him. I’m saying that because he’s identified a need most, if not all, companies in our industry including our industry association are realizing: the next generation of leadership. Scott goes through a five step process to identifying and developing the next generation of leaders. Hopefully all of you heed his advice and we start seeing a few newer and younger faces at our Open Quarterly Meetings.