I’m on the Auburn University Research Advisory Board, which meets twice a year. About three weeks ago, we had a chance to visit the athletic facilities, and among several there, I had a conversation with head football coach Gus Malzahn. Beyond the academics, Auburn is similar to other great schools in their athletic programs and the …
I’d like to share a story I read from Vice-Chancellor John McCardell‘s address to the students and faculty of Sewanee: The University of the South, given at the beginning of this school year. I think the legend of Willie Six has a lot of application for us, as we will shortly begin a new year. Willie Six is a …
A number of years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing an address by Charles Cawley. He started his business on a shoestring in an empty A&P food store. This startup would become MBNA Corporation, the largest independent credit card company in the world. As the story goes, one of his first orders of business was …
Over the last few days, unusually high winds and a lot of rain overtaxed the storm water controls of a recently completed building in Kansas. Water infiltrated the first level of the structure. We studied the problem a few days ago, making recommendations to our customer and the civil engineer. There was still more wind …
It’s been interesting to see our garden take shape over the five years we’ve been here on Overton Road. We started with a small tomato area in 2009. Two years later, we had more than 10 types of plants and herbs just outside our offices. In 2012, we hired a recent college graduate as a part time gardener …
Do you remember the scene from the movie Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase is stuck in the attic? He ends up watching old family movies of years gone by. Something similar happened to me a few weeks ago. My son has moved out of the house, and over the holidays I cleaned up his room. …
This is the fourth year for our Community Garden. What started with a few tomato plants has expanded to fruit trees and a much larger vegetable patch. New additions this year include: Two large mounded beds. “Melon Mountain” will include six varieties of melons; “Squash Mountain” will be home to 5 varieties of squash and a …
For three years running, Barber Motorsports Park has hosted the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. Stewart Perry has been there from the beginning, enjoying the weekend of family fun the races provide. This year, highlights included the entry of V6 turbo-charged Chevy and Lotus engines and a chance to ride the ferris wheel from Neverland …
If I were to rank overused words in business today, “sustainability” would be at the top of my list. “Teamwork” is close behind, only because most do not walk the walk. In fact, I think sometimes “teamwork” has become so cliche that it has lost meaning. So what is teamwork? Ten years ago, I took …
Might be over-exposed. That’s what the Wall Street Journal, “Indecent Exposure: The Downsides of Working in a Glass Office” says, anyway. With all the talk about the benefits of open design, no one seemed to consider the pitfalls. Here are a few the WSJ identified: Privacy on personal matters, where human resources or other private …
We are in the midst of summer’s “dog days.” While the heat might be novel to our Stewart Perry team, having a dog around isn’t. For several months, my canine companion has been coming to work with me. Pal, a 12-year-old Springer Spaniel, used to stay at home whenever I went to the office, enduring …
When we built our corporate campus a few years back, we were thinking about how to create a better workplace for our folks. Our goal was to create an environment to promote teamwork, break down cylinders and be fun. To accomplish this, I considered multiple designs: –minimum walls and many open work areas, our customer …