On this Sunday morning, the muse is gently whispering in my ear. I dare not ignore her (she doesn't like that...). She says quietly that it doesn't matter that probably nobody cares what's on my mind. She says it is more important to write it than evaluate it.
This is the weekend. Weekend days dish up precious time to me. Weekend days are no longer about kids' activities - the kids are grown up now. It's not about camping, or mini-vacations. Weekend days are about the opportunity to turn down the weekday volume. And, amazingly, when the day-to-day volume is turned down, I find there are other tunes playing under there.
How to turn down the volume? For me, it's reading - books, local newspapers, the business press, trade journals, the cereal box. Like cable TV, a mind has multiple channels - and I discovered reading doesn't take up all my channels. Those channels unused in reading are active in their own right. They are carrying the tunes playing beneath the surface.
It's funny. I'll be cruising along on something I want to read, and suddenly, I have the answer to a lingering question or stubborn problem that I wasn't thinking about -I was just reading the newspaper! This backchannel, subsurface thinking is how, for me, problems get solved, situations get analyzed, business ideas are born.
Today, this morning, it was the Wall Street Journal. The backchannel idea? How to develop a flooring product that incorporates a special "green" technology that everybody wants, but nobody provides.
Sorry, that's all you get.
But you can be sure I'll renew my Wall Street Journal subscription. Maybe I'll head down to the library for a new book, so I can get some more great flooring ideas.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Something's Happening Here...What It Is Ain't Exactly Clear...
Yes, something's happening here...in the construction world, and the flooring world. Those of us of a certain vintage remember that Vietnam-era song, mostly addressing the paranoia of the times.
Our little flooring business has gotten busy! And it all happened at once, it seems. Every corner of our national market has perked up, with one exception. Almost as if the logjam broke in all minds at the same time.
Of course, we're thrilled. We are back to making floors and parquets as fast as the lumber and blanks can be trucked in, unloaded, and queued up. Our factory force is back at full strength, and we're carefully calculating lead times in our quotes again. This is exhilarating, and we TRUST it will continue for awhile.
The one exception is Las Vegas. That town is a construction disaster area, after having once been anticipated as the saving grace for commercial construction. Many hotel projects in Las Vegas are nearly finished; and the big one, City Center, seemingly has the financing actually to be completed. But many others, although nearly complete, are shut down for lack of the financial wherewithall to go forward to completion. Strange. To think of all that sunk cost, now inches from the finish line, and someone somehow can't close out the deal.
So, remodelers and new constructors, residentials and commercials, congratulations on getting the resources together to get those projects back off the drawing board and into action. Our architect and designer friends aren't far behind, although those projects take longer to cycle through. Still, our work tables are covered with plans and drawings, construction budgets are being drawn up again, and a cautious enthusiasm is in the air.
Do you feel it too? Give us a shout - what's going on where you are?
Our little flooring business has gotten busy! And it all happened at once, it seems. Every corner of our national market has perked up, with one exception. Almost as if the logjam broke in all minds at the same time.
Of course, we're thrilled. We are back to making floors and parquets as fast as the lumber and blanks can be trucked in, unloaded, and queued up. Our factory force is back at full strength, and we're carefully calculating lead times in our quotes again. This is exhilarating, and we TRUST it will continue for awhile.
The one exception is Las Vegas. That town is a construction disaster area, after having once been anticipated as the saving grace for commercial construction. Many hotel projects in Las Vegas are nearly finished; and the big one, City Center, seemingly has the financing actually to be completed. But many others, although nearly complete, are shut down for lack of the financial wherewithall to go forward to completion. Strange. To think of all that sunk cost, now inches from the finish line, and someone somehow can't close out the deal.
So, remodelers and new constructors, residentials and commercials, congratulations on getting the resources together to get those projects back off the drawing board and into action. Our architect and designer friends aren't far behind, although those projects take longer to cycle through. Still, our work tables are covered with plans and drawings, construction budgets are being drawn up again, and a cautious enthusiasm is in the air.
Do you feel it too? Give us a shout - what's going on where you are?
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Opening Gambit
Writing a blog will be new to me. Reading a blog may not be new to you. If this blog becomes boring or seems one-dimensional, forgive me. I'll get better at it.
Why engage in this quasi-conversation called "blogging?" Well, for starters, for all the publicized reasons: getting and staying in touch with interested parties in this business enterprise that seems to consume our professional lives; promoting glimpses of new things we're dreaming up; and providing a forum for comments from our customers, resellers, sales reps, company friends, personal acquaintances, old buddies, and (gasp!) competitors.
But there is another reason to engage in this blogging. It's a chance to have a real dialogue with interested and interestING people on the business subjects we attend to every day. Ideas and commentary about matters, large and small, of life in business flow through my brain in what seems like a steady and endless stream. What good is that, really, if it is inadequately shared? So, the experiences of my own decades-long love affair with global business are begging to pour forth here - many experiences in the wood business, including our Plantation custom-made floors, but also many from my years of international business travel, global adventure, and my ongoing looks at our larger world with wide-eyed fascination.
Undoubtedly we'll also spend a lot of blog time on more immediate, day-to-day subjects about hardwood flooring. What goes into making a reasonable flooring buying decision? What are the technical differences between "commodity" flooring, and "good" flooring? How can some flooring cost so little, and other flooring cost so much? I do hope there will be many other questions and answers that you, our gentle readers, will inspire.
Finally, for today, starting up this blog contemplates responses from the people who read it. If you read this thing, please respond. I expect it'll be fun, and we'll all have a good time.
Why engage in this quasi-conversation called "blogging?" Well, for starters, for all the publicized reasons: getting and staying in touch with interested parties in this business enterprise that seems to consume our professional lives; promoting glimpses of new things we're dreaming up; and providing a forum for comments from our customers, resellers, sales reps, company friends, personal acquaintances, old buddies, and (gasp!) competitors.
But there is another reason to engage in this blogging. It's a chance to have a real dialogue with interested and interestING people on the business subjects we attend to every day. Ideas and commentary about matters, large and small, of life in business flow through my brain in what seems like a steady and endless stream. What good is that, really, if it is inadequately shared? So, the experiences of my own decades-long love affair with global business are begging to pour forth here - many experiences in the wood business, including our Plantation custom-made floors, but also many from my years of international business travel, global adventure, and my ongoing looks at our larger world with wide-eyed fascination.
Undoubtedly we'll also spend a lot of blog time on more immediate, day-to-day subjects about hardwood flooring. What goes into making a reasonable flooring buying decision? What are the technical differences between "commodity" flooring, and "good" flooring? How can some flooring cost so little, and other flooring cost so much? I do hope there will be many other questions and answers that you, our gentle readers, will inspire.
Finally, for today, starting up this blog contemplates responses from the people who read it. If you read this thing, please respond. I expect it'll be fun, and we'll all have a good time.
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