Why Business Development Plans Make Sense
HERES A QUOTE from 1956 that I jotted down during a marketing seminar earlier this month at the MCAA annual convention in Scottsdale, Ariz.: Doing business...
Finding the Green in the Green Building Movement
WEVE SUPPORTED the green building movement since, well, before it was identified as such. That is to say, weve advocated initiatives that would save water...
Front Page Holds Up Mirror to the Industry
SITTING ON THE desktop of my computer is a file with all the front-page headlines that CONTRACTOR published during its first 50 years. As we celebrated...
Bottom-line Opportunities in Productivity Gains
IVE SUSPECTED FOR years that several utilities and consolidators got into the mechanical contracting business for some of the same factors revealed in...
When employees are present and unproductive
I RAN INTO two of my favorite people in the contracting industry during the recent PHCC convention and ISH North America trade show in Boston. I discovered...
'Don't expect me to listen to your rage'
IN THE PAST MONTH, I've heard a well-known political commentator and a highly regarded economist tell two different groups in the plumbing industry how...
Woman PHCC president is big step for industry
AT ITS ANNUAL convention in October in Boston, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors - National Association will install Mary Garvelink as its first...
Tort reform needs act of Congress, and more
TORT REFORM has been an issue facing contractors, wholesalers and manufacturers since I started covering the plumbing and heating industry about 14 years...
Staying Responsive to New Opportunities
LETS KEEP 1954 in perspective. As proud as we are of our 50th anniversary, the start of CONTRACTOR was not the most newsworthy event of the year. That...
Unethical Acts Bring Only Short-Term Gains
THE NEW REPORT from FMI on ethical practices in the construction industry states that a breakdown in trust and integrity is bad for business. No kidding....
Reason for Optimism Among 2004 Giants
SOME GIANTS MUST feel that they cant catch a break. After enduring three or four years of rugged business conditions, these large mechanicals finally...
Law Would Address More Than Health Care
THE PRIMARY REASON that the contracting industry should support association health plans is that they would help to make health insurance more affordable...
Plumbing Industry's Role in Disease Control
PEOPLE IN OUR industry like to say that plumbers have saved more lives in the last century or so than doctors have. In fact, Ive said so myself, and recently...
Keeping Current With Contractors' Needs
JEFF FORKER, my former boss who died Jan. 22, used to have a saying : If its the right thing to do for the readers, its the right thing to do for the...
Pro Contractors Become Hot Marketing Trend
A WEEK BEFORE Christmas, I was traveling on business when a USA Today was dropped at my hotel door with this front-page headline: If the pros use a tool...
Magazine Milestone, Industry Challenges in 2004
BY BOB MIODONSKI, Publisher and Editorial Director CONTRACTOR MAGAZINE will celebrate its 50th year of publishing in 2004, an accomplishment of which...
It's Time To Get Serious About Sprinkler Retrofits
For the second time in the last eight months, CONTRACTOR magazine has published a front-page story about a tragedy occurring in an older, unsprinklered...
Labor Law Lacks Personal Accountability
WITH CONTRACTING companies at the top of the list of businesses with drug and alcohol problems, New York states Labor Law 240 strikes us as a particularly...
Fewer, Bigger trade Shows Still a Good Idea
WHEN TALKING about trade shows, consolidation is an issue that manufacturers and wholesalers have been advocating for more than a decade. Trade shows...
Regulations Good for Environment, Business
NO ONE ADVOCATES water conservation more than I do, but heres where I draw the line: Guys who dont flush the urinal or toilet after they visit a public...
Vo-Tech Schools Need Federal Funds, and More
THE OUTCRY FROM members of our industry and a broad range of companies across the country may yet be enough to save federal funding for vo-tech schools....
Reader Comments