What Will Happen in 2005?
You’ll be impressed to know the amount of research I’ve done to bring you the definitive word on what lies in store for us in the coming year. Along with the nearly endless list of experts and prognosticators who rise up daily to cast their lot into this arena of infinite possibility, I must give thanks to my local legion of New Age seers—Madame Natasha who owns four separate palmistry parlors in different neighborhoods to better serve her transportation-challenged clients; two (from a bank of at least a dozen) tarot card readers whom my next door neighbor swears by; my barber who knows everything; and even an animal medium with views of the future that would make your hair stand on end—whose reach may be less global than those who grace the tube or checkout stand tabloid, but who are loaded with commitment nonetheless. So what’s the consensus?
What Do We Know?
Quite a bit as it turns out.
- We know that we live in a time of incredible change where conventional notions of stability and security are as dead as the dodo.
- We know that despite the claims of spin-doctors in high places we are not—repeat, not—entering a period of inflation, the things we buy and that go into them are getting more expensive.
- We know that there is a relationship between the rising cost of such critical materials as steel and fuel, and the aggressive entry of people-rich Asian nations into a global marketplace that we, along with a handful of Western European countries, have arrogantly considered our own private preserve.
- We know that the margin for error in the way we conduct our business is shrinking inexorably at a rate matched by the number of critical decisions we have to make with each project in which we become involved.
- We know that the number of demands placed on us by our employers, employees, regulators at every level of government, and anyone with access to a lawyer with some free time on his hands are accelerating at a dizzying rate.
- We know that in each of these we’re in that heady position of having caught the tiger by his tail and having no idea where he intends to take us.
What Don’t We Know?
Pretty much everything else.
- Whether to bid on a job that may stretch us beyond the point of no return
- Whether to rent, lease, or purchase the equipment we need to tackle a job
- Whether to bite the bullet and invest in the high-tech peripherals that have taken the field by storm these past few years
- Whether to expand our training programs to overcome deficiencies in the skill and educational inventories of many of our entry-level employees
- Whether we dare take the vacations our families so desperately need for fear that things will turn to worms in our absence
- Whether this is the time to pull out the stops and expand, or whether it’s time to pull the plug and put the business up for sale
- Where that tiger intends to take us
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What Do We Do?
Having despaired of finding anything approaching consensus, I’ve decided to fall back on the premise on which Grading & Excavation Contractor was founded—that the first and in many ways the most important step in maintaining a successful business lies in running a tight ship. In my very first Editor’s Comments I set as our thesis that Grading & Excavation Contractor [and in a similar sense the success of your business] is not about dirt, or how to dig it, or what kind of iron you should have to do it with. You know that stuff already, or if you don’t a magazine isn’t going to help much. The fare we bring to the table has to do with productivity, good decisions, staying out of the clutches of the regulators, building more soundness into your business with every yard of dirt you touch.
“These right here are the good old days,” I declared in that inaugural editorial, and I have no reason to change my tune…especially since I took myself to Wong’s China Palace yesterday for egg drop soup and that all-important fortune cookie that reminded me, “These are the days of your life. Enjoy!”
Author's Bio: John Trotti is the Editor of Grading & Excavation Contractor magazine.
January-February2005
What Will Happen in 2005?
You’ll be impressed to know the amount of research I’ve done to bring you the definitive word on what lies in store for us in the coming year. Along with the nearly endless list of experts and prognosticators who rise up daily to cast their lot into this arena of infinite possibility, I must give thanks to my local legion of New Age seers—Madame Natasha who owns four separate palmistry parlors in different neighborhoods to better serve her transportation-challenged clients; two (from a bank of at least a dozen) tarot card readers whom my next door neighbor swears by; my barber who knows everything; and even an animal medium with views of the future that would make your hair stand on end—whose reach may be less global than those who grace the tube or checkout stand tabloid, but who are loaded with commitment nonetheless. So what’s the consensus?What Do We Know?
Quite a bit as it turns out.
- We know that we live in a time of incredible change where conventional notions of stability and security are as dead as the dodo.
- We know that despite the claims of spin-doctors in high places we are not—repeat, not—entering a period of inflation, the things we buy and that go into them are getting more expensive.
- We know that there is a relationship between the rising cost of such critical materials as steel and fuel, and the aggressive entry of people-rich Asian nations into a global marketplace that we, along with a handful of Western European countries, have arrogantly considered our own private preserve.
- We know that the margin for error in the way we conduct our business is shrinking inexorably at a rate matched by the number of critical decisions we have to make with each project in which we become involved.
- We know that the number of demands placed on us by our employers, employees, regulators at every level of government, and anyone with access to a lawyer with some free time on his hands are accelerating at a dizzying rate.
- We know that in each of these we’re in that heady position of having caught the tiger by his tail and having no idea where he intends to take us.
What Don’t We Know?
Pretty much everything else.
- Whether to bid on a job that may stretch us beyond the point of no return
- Whether to rent, lease, or purchase the equipment we need to tackle a job
- Whether to bite the bullet and invest in the high-tech peripherals that have taken the field by storm these past few years
- Whether to expand our training programs to overcome deficiencies in the skill and educational inventories of many of our entry-level employees
- Whether we dare take the vacations our families so desperately need for fear that things will turn to worms in our absence
- Whether this is the time to pull out the stops and expand, or whether it’s time to pull the plug and put the business up for sale
- Where that tiger intends to take us
What Do We Do?
Having despaired of finding anything approaching consensus, I’ve decided to fall back on the premise on which Grading & Excavation Contractor was founded—that the first and in many ways the most important step in maintaining a successful business lies in running a tight ship. In my very first Editor’s Comments I set as our thesis that Grading & Excavation Contractor [and in a similar sense the success of your business] is not about dirt, or how to dig it, or what kind of iron you should have to do it with. You know that stuff already, or if you don’t a magazine isn’t going to help much. The fare we bring to the table has to do with productivity, good decisions, staying out of the clutches of the regulators, building more soundness into your business with every yard of dirt you touch.
“These right here are the good old days,” I declared in that inaugural editorial, and I have no reason to change my tune…especially since I took myself to Wong’s China Palace yesterday for egg drop soup and that all-important fortune cookie that reminded me, “These are the days of your life. Enjoy!”