Masonry Magazine February 2011 Page. 17
The President visits with Ernest Maier employees
spent the last 15 years saying it does not matter how heavy a block is or how much you pay a bricklayer. You hear that the bricklayers are not like they used to be. Ignoring productivity and human capital investment translated into big profits ironically. Decreased productivity created "labor cost" inflation in estimates (e.g., laying less bricks per day or blocks per day created more bricklayer days). Estimating departments applied "over- head and profit" percentages to inflated labor costs. Those overhead and profit dollars exceeded all office expenses and allowed for big profits.
It means that we all have to look at our people daily and ask whether we are investing in them or in ourselves. If the objective of a business is to make "me" money, it almost certainly will have only limited, short-term success. That success must be shared, if it is to become long-term.
Resolve
All that glitters is not gold. Our faith and our commitment to our people do not mean that business during the last two years has been easy. It has been even more difficult than saving the business. Everything is easier when you have nothing to lose.
A mason contractor asked me in May 2008, "What should I do?"
I replied, "Buy a submarine."
The analogy that I explained was that the market, due to Icarus and other factors, was going to get ugly. Fear and paranoia are destructive and deflationary forces. Shut it all down and raise the "periscope" every six months to see if the water is clear. If you see burning warships, go back under water and wait a little while longer.
I tell everyone that the hardest part about resolve is that we live in the short-term and believe in the long-term. Each day is a crisis, but those crises should be teaching points for me or my employees. I learn more about my company when we "lose" than when we "win." Those losses should inform your decision making, amend weak parts of your plan, and strengthen your resolve to persevere through tough times.
Obama
As long as I can remember, no sitting President has ever visited a block plant and talked about our industry as the "bricks and blocks of our entire economy." At a time when we are losing to glass curtain walls, tilt-up concrete construction, wood construction and steel- stud construction, President Obama highlighted our business. We must use this press and momentum to effect change in ourselves and in our trade. You fix things one block at a time. We must do the same.
It is a call to transform the marketing and promotion of our products and trade. It is a call to invest in educating our labor force and making it more productive. When people ask who we compete against, I always answer with "ourselves." When we fix our house, we then need to go out and beat the crap out of our competition, whether it is tilt- up, glass, siding, precast panels or steel. The President wants us to do it. IMAS
Brendan Quinn is CEO of Bladensburg, Md.-based Ernest Maier Block Company Store. He can be reached at 301-927-8300 or bquinn03@emcoblock.com.
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February 2011
MASONRY 15