Editor's Note

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How do you define success? That is a question I have asked at the conclusion of more interviews than I want to think about. For some reason it stops most interviewees in their tracks. I have become accustomed to patiently waiting on a response.

Aesop was writing about business in the 21st century in the 6th century B.C. Wonder if he knew? His fable about the tortoise and the hare has just been played out between a pair of banking giants. And the tortoise won again.

In addition to all the attention the retail media is giving to the upcoming national election, there is considerable talk among many of the business folks close to me about the effect it is having on markets.

The stark question virtually shouted at me from the bottom of page 38 in the July issue of Pro Sales magazine: “Sales Suck?” There it was, right there beneath a drawing of the Titanic slipping into oblivion.

Owing to a convergence of a changing world economy and an oil market gone mad, the price and availability of one of our industry’s most treasured commodities is spiraling out of control. The price and availability of asphalt is taking the industry into some uncharted waters.

As if the economy and the price of a barrel of oil were not enough to upset the roofing markets this year, we are witnessing a record year for hailstorms

A little off topic this month since the main purpose of this column is to offer up the announcement that our Best of Success conference scheduled for October 2008 has

I sold kettle parts to Brice’s dad when he was a kid in school. That was a long time ago, and he has long since carved out a niche of

To some of you, welcome to the Web version of Roofing Contractor. To many of you, welcome back. To all of you, thanks for reading Roofing Contractor and for putting up with this unvarnished bit of self-promotion for our Web site. But that is the point of this note: self-promotion.

The term “value engineering” is one I have heard spoken by commercial roofing contractors as long as I can remember. In this context it is a fairly straightforward process whereby a given design or specification for a roofing system is pulled apart, analyzed, and reconstructed in order to achieve more bang for the owner’s buck. In an economy with more than a few challenges, it would seem a good idea for all of us in the roofing industry to consider turning our value engineering skills inward. In other words, should your enterprise be constructed differently to meet the challenges of 2008 and beyond?