Building a strong employer/employee relationship is probably one of the biggest challenges that leaders face in any organization. I have never met any manager or leader of any company who does not want to improve in this area. There are so many books, seminars, and other resource materials...

To withhold information from someone else is usually a deliberate choice, and of course there are legitimate reasons to do so. But let’s consider the instances when the reasons are less clear and motives more suspect. How often have you encountered these situations? You’re Not...

For many of us, one of our favorite parts of childhood was playing in sports. It taught us many lessons about life, including teamwork, sportsmanship, competition, and being the best you can be each day. Every day on the playground, at every elementary school I ever went to, the first thing...

Are Companies Missing the Boat? As a recruiter, I talk to a lot of employers. Not just to get job orders and discuss candidates, I want to hear about the challenges they have with retaining employees in the long term and how they address those challenges. Because I look at both sides of the...

The true story of how Alpine revolutionized saws In early 2000, sales of truss equipment began to taper off. By the end of the year, the Equipment Division had reduced its employment by more than half and had shrunk its occupied floor space by 40%. The most dramatic reduction took place in...

In a meeting last month, a person in management announced a change of procedure and expected everyone to be impressed with the great idea. The problem? That person did not take the time to consider that this change had ever been discussed before, much less that there were reasons why it had been...

At Eagle Metal, our TrueBuild® software gives you an advantage in efficiency. Our software gives our customers the flexibility they need to build more. We offer fabricators the options they need to make operating their facility as simple or as complex as they want it to be. From design to...

I recently had a chance to visit Weinmann and Hundegger in Germany. Having partnerships that we can talk about and advertise is great, but having partnerships where we take steps to learn each other’s products, procedures, and people is what allows us to grow into a stronger machine vendor...

Have you heard the news? On September 10, Simpson Strong-Tie announced the formation of our new partnership. Officially, Simpson Strong-Tie has begun “a direct investment into the North America Hundegger equipment sales and service representative partner, Hundegger USA, LC.” So,...

Only a fortunate few in our industry knew Paul Robertson, who succumbed to Covid September 7. But those of us who did know that he stood for the values that has made this business great, honesty, humility, and hard work. Paul was a nuts-and-bolts guy in a nuts-and-bolts business. Yet he was able...