James Baty, CFA Executive Director, jbaty@cfawalls.org

Another round of Capital One commercials are streaming across every form of my media these days. While I enjoy seeing the newest way to get (or prevent) a point across, it did give me a reason this week to pause and contemplate what it means for our industry. Seriously, what’s in your wallet (if I can borrow the line from Capital One)?

In my conversations around the industry, there is a whole lot in the wallets of concrete contractors these days as compared to years in the past. If you’re invested in the stock market, there should be even more in your portfolio, as the latest wave of confidence in our economy is trending toward daily and weekly records. Yet, for most of the construction world there is still a pervasiveness of conservatism, perhaps even disbelief. It is as if we are all just waiting…and waiting…and still waiting for the “what comes next.”

We’re about moving forward in this Association, with an incredibly diverse and strong membership leadership committed to dreaming and working for this industry’s future…your future. What I see from them more than anything else right now is that we are no longer just waiting for you, that is for the hundreds of companies in this industry that fit the profile of a member. I’m very pleased at this new direction from casting a net over ways for this industry to excel through the minds of company managers that recognize that now is the time for change to be made, not accepted.

This issue offers another layer of thoughts on the increasingly complicated topic of managing a workforce. You’ll find tones of this in articles on the latest risks associated with medicines and substance abuse as well as returning employees to work.

While the last decade has taught the concrete contractor to be content, thrifty and resourceful in managing equipment and product needs, now is the exact time to be practicing the art of expanding the mind and reaching out to ideas that challenge new processes, new solutions and new offerings. We have added a reader service card and information to each ad making it possible for you to more effectively connecting your areas of possible interest to the best information resources to bring them to you.

Change also comes in stepping forward into a new opportunistic future. You can survive but can you thrive? This is the question that is now before you. I see some great companies taking control of their future, investing in new risk management, new peer networking and not just broadening their access to information but challenging the very foundations of their knowledge base to be better prepared for tomorrow’s consumers. You need to invest time, energy and wisely aligned monies to pace ahead of the risks. Is this the challenge you’ve been waiting for?