Last week we were in Las Vegas to attend ICSC RECon, which I have always considered a family reunion of retail. It’s a chance to visit with longtime friends and make a few new ones each year. It seemed to me that this year’s conference had a definite emphasis on the “customer experience.” Stores are shifting towards being a bit more customized, and …
A new corporate headquarters was recently completed near our place. It’s sleek, well-designed and sends the right message. When talking to one of their leads, I asked why they chose Gensler for the design. The answer: “They make things painful in the beginning, drilling hard on the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ before they ever get around to what …
We are midstream in the renovation of a Gulf Coast project, and one of the exterior skin clad products we are using there is Nichiha, a fiber cement siding. EIFS seemed to be the king of the hill for many years, and they are also innovating with their products, but there are now several other …
This week I had breakfast with a young fellow who has raised about $3 million for his tech startup company. He’s past the angel fund stage, and now has a group of about 30 working for him. They are still losing money each month, but he has a pretty decent runway with the revenue he’s …
The image you see here is one of our recent projects in the southeast. Interestingly, we constructed this building a few years ago and were called back in 2018 in the innovation mode. We’re seeing a number of shifts, and in the process, “innovation” has become a keyword for the companies who are turning the battleship, whether by lowering cost, …
I am a member of a group that provides startup capital and mentoring to young entrepreneurs in our city. This week, I attended a presentation on the life of Winston Churchill that was sponsored by our group. As the past can give us some insight to the present, it was nice to see young entrepreneurs …
There was a time when pigs did fly. Each year in December, I would look forward to my mother taking me to ride “The Pink Pig” at the downtown Atlanta department store of Mr. and Mrs. Rich (Rich’s). It’s an iconic holiday memory, and one that always endeared me to the now out-of-business retailer. As an …
A couple of our customers have asked about the impacts the new steel tariffs might have on construction cost. There will now be a 25% tax on imported steel and a 10% tax on imported aluminum coming in from most countries. While I believe the steel production is currently healthy in the US, we still import a …
For most of us, each day holds a number of “to-dos.” Some are thinking tasks that involve strategy, and others are more routine, as in “just do it.” Everything I’ve read says that our minds work in different cycles depending on how we are wired. I’ve written about being a member of the before breakfast club, and …
This week, I participated in an FMI construction conference in Denver, with the goal of discussing the construction outlook for 2018. A major item, not surprisingly, was the increasing shortage of labor and new talent in construction. The problem is likely a combination of after-burn from all those leaving the industry during the financial crisis, baby boomers retiring and no …
I sometimes think I used up all of my share of blind luck about 15 years ago, when I played in a charity golf tournament that Coach Bowden of FSU sponsored down in Destin. It was one of those tournaments where they drew five names that evening and each of the five pulled a key …
First impressions matter. In these initial minutes, maybe even seconds, we sometimes may make unconscious judgments, including whether or not we can trust a person. I’ve read that we tend to trust people who are a bit older than ourselves or those who appear a bit more reserved. For most of us, there’s not a lot …