Every year, we have a Christmas gathering to bring all the Stewart Perry families together. The first year this reunion was held at our place, we spent one Saturday morning planting several hundred daffodils across the lake on the hillside. We chose that spot because it is visible from our conference room and is a …
Lately it seems like an increasing number of folks have seen the light when it comes to the drawbacks of dark-colored pavement. Black asphalt has traditionally been the surface of choice for our nation’s roadways and parking lots, but asphalt can act as a heat sink that retains the warmth of sunlight. The effect is …
ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) is an organization that can have a substantial impact on construction projects, yet quite a few folks are not familiar with it. ASTM was founded in 1898 for the development and delivery of voluntary consensus technical standards for a wide variety of materials, systems and services. ASTM’s …
Imagine attending a conference and being introduced to a prospective client. This person asks about your company and professional background. Instead of replying to the prospect you say, “Let my friend Dave here tell you all about us.” And then you walk away without speaking a word. It is extremely unlikely that this potential client …
Few people endure slumps and a downturn in performance as often as professional athletes. Even the greatest sports stars suffer through stretches where seemingly nothing goes right. During his heyday, Michael Jordan had a commercial in which he stated, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life.” Then, after a short pause, …
According to the EPA, it is estimated that a staggering 800 million square yards of carpet is sent to U.S. landfills each year. That is enough to cover New York’s Central Park every two days. Fortunately, the carpet industry has begun to realize that there is no need for all this shag and nylon to …
Thanks to several social media tools, I have been able to stay connected with increased frequency than before web 2.0. A couple of years ago we started using several of these and the effectiveness of helping with relationships has been very encouraging. I can count on a brief exchange with someone due to my blog …
It’s easy to get bogged down with the day-to-day activities and then add in family and just life in general. We lose contact with those that are an import part of our lives, whether professional or personal. We are then reminded of them by something that we see or hear. Through the years, I have …
Making mistakes is common for everyone. We all make them. Admitting to mistakes is not always an immediate reaction. Instead, many try to redirect the blame to others or maybe provide incomplete answers back. I tell our folks at Stewart Perry that they will always make mistakes along the trail and it is a …
As the year comes to a close, I wonder what it would be like if more of us said thank you to each other. Not just at the end of the year, but throughout the year… I can count on my two hands the amount of times that someone from downstream has thanked us for …
I read recently that nearly 1,200 pounds of trash is produced by the average person per year. We ignore that scrap of paper or old cardboard box but it all adds up. The drip-drip-drip process eventually turns into a river of trash. When we moved into our offices, one of my main objectives was to …
Right-sizing, why did I not have this in my vocabulary before ’07? Makes sense. We are constructors of buildings and handle the civil management of projects, but the bottom line is that we are service providers. Just like architects, engineers, lawyers, bankers or accountants, all service providers of different sorts. We need to be adjusting( …