Last week when I was at the University of the South, Sewanee, I traveled through the new Spencer Wing of Woods Laboratories on the campus. I found myself in the Forestry Department in front of a plaque that reads “Restoring Our Forest,” with the subtitle “Importance of fire in the forest communities.” It goes on …
Last week, I attended the Cahaba River Society’s (CRS) annual meeting. I’ve been a board member for about a year now. The Society protects our beautiful river and facilitates public conversations about environmental well-being. While the CRS still focuses much of its energy on the River and its basin, it is also evolving into something …
There’s no better way to bring friends, family or client relationships together than by savoring a good meal in each other’s company. That’s made my interest in the culinary world more personal. An opportunity to explore the field presented itself last Friday afternoon. I was traveling back from one of our Pennsylvania projects and found …
HVAC (Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning) systems have evolved and gotten better with technology. Matching system requirements with the need and with quality will always trump the bells and whistles. Over the years I have worked with a number of HVAC subcontractors and a few thoughts come to mind that might be useful: SYSTEM ENERGY …
I’ve often thought that most builders strive for one of two major goals—to make the most money possible or to build a legacy. I’m not sure about you, but as a business owner I’d like to think at least some of what we do will go beyond legacy status and have a lasting impact to …
Ideally, I could say that every project that we’ve built during the last 25 years has been perfect. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. As our company has matured beyond those early years, it’s become evident that starting out with a good game plan and a properly laid concrete foundation makes the rest of the job …
I never get through all of the newspapers I wish to read each day. I bring them home and they stack up on my kitchen counter waiting to share their knowledge with me. At the first of last year, not seeing all the news and forecasts might have been good for my morale. With so …
Last week we received a plaque from The Heart of America Foundation for the improvements we provided an inner city Atlanta elementary school. It’s a beautiful memento covered with pictures of students enjoying their new space. As I looked at all the smiling faces, it reminded me why we made the commitment last June. Jim …
As 2009 comes to a close, I have thought about what I could have done better, the mistakes I made, and the wins we achieved. To me, we always learn more from our failures than from our wins. Winning makes us think we are smarter than we might really be. Never confuse success with a …
Every December our team and their families come together for a long weekend. Last weekend was our 25th year to celebrate this tradition. We started on Friday afternoon with a presentation on quality EIFS details, followed by the chairman of the USGBC visiting with us about their standards. Saturday morning our branding consultant, Holland & …
As a construction company navigating our way through these hard economic times, we are devoting much time to seeking out the right opportunities. Many of us are in the same boat, looking for work that has reasonable profits. On the cost side of our operations—overhead—we’re fortunate to have a forward thinking CFO who keeps me …
We recently completed a major expansion for a customer relationship in Charlotte, NC. A regular shopper at the store sent me this note: “You guys were invisible. Every week during the project I would shop there and things just seemed to change. I never noticed who was doing the changing.” I didn’t expect such a …