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Games and Game-Changers

By on January 22nd, 2012

I am writing this on a Sunday night on the road as I flip channels between the Giants-49ers game and “Undercover Boss,” which is featuring Dina Dwyer Owens, the president of Glass Doctor’s parent company, Dwyer Group. Dina was kind enough to give USGNN.com an interview about the show on Friday and I was anxious to see it.

So far, the Giants are leading 10-7 and Dina is visiting a Mr. Rooter franchisee in Roswell, Ga. An employee is voicing an opinion that “something shady is going on” because he has had pretty tiny paychecks the last eight weeks – one week he ended up owing $21. Do not worry, though, Dina has already called the office to get things fixed. I give both Dina and the Giants a lot of credit. It takes a lot of fortitude to put yourself out there in front of millions of people without knowing what the final outcome will be.

I got to visit some friends in Pittsburgh today and see a nail-bitter of a hockey game at Consol Energy Stadium. The excellent play took the sting out of the Caps loss 3-2 in overtime. It was a great game.

But the story is always in the glass and the Consol Center is no exception. The expanses of glass compliment the design and give all visitors – whether sitting low or high – a great view of the city. I was amazed by how well insulated the building was and how there was no glare, even as the sun fell in the winter. PPG’s hard work in product development really shines.

I continue to work the remote like a conductor’s baton. Both Dina and Eli Manning are sweating at the same time. Dina, because she is planting flowers in 104 hot and humid degrees in Memphis and appears to have stumbled into a hive of bees. And Eli because he has just been knocked down by a Mr. Harrelson.

Maybe people love sports because it is so much like business. Or vice versa.

The Game Changer

The real game changer this month was the emergence of Grey Mountain as a new and formidable force in the glass and metal industry. The private equity company’s purchase of both Custom Components and Binswanger garnered attention, but it was its acquisition of Columbia Commercial Building Products that made a statement. It is clear that these are just the opening moves in the emergence of a new and powerful glass and metal supplier. Watch for more such moves in the future as I would expect such acquisitions to be Arturo Carillo’s focus in the future.

And game changers do just that in many cases for the better. Just ask the 49ers who now lead 14-10 and the worthy franchisee employees to whom Dina gave more than $50,000 in cash, trucks and sunshades at the end of the episode. And sometimes the instant changes are not for the better. Just ask Derrell Brown, who just left the field, injured in an eye-blink.

And in another blink of an eye, the Giants are back on top, 17-14, no wait it’s tied again 17-17.

Total wimp that I am, I’m not sure I will be able to stay awake til the end of the game. But the one thing I absolutely love … about sports and business … is that you never know how it will end til it does.

Have a good week.

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Things We Can’t Even Imagine – But Did

By on January 9th, 2012

Happy New Year.

Welcome to another year of things we can’t even imagine that haven’t happened yet. I guess that’s true every year, but last year was especially so. Some of those things will be good, and some will not, but most of them will be full of surprises and change and that’s what makes news, so let’s get to it.

A New Home for Binswanger

It took about only six months from when I predicted that Binswanger would be sold til it was. Grey Mountain Partners of Boulder, Colo., acquired Binswanger Enterprises LLC of Memphis, Tenn., from Sun Capital last week. It’s nice to see this story have a happy ending and beginning for the many great people who work at Binswanger and for Arturo Carillo, its president and CEO.

“We are very excited about partnering with Grey,” said Carillo. “This is the first time that we’re not tied to a fabricator. Before, we were owned by ACI [Glass Products of Memphis], then Trulite [Glass and Aluminum Solutions of Deerfield Beach, Fla.], this is the first time that we’re independent. We’re happy to get back to our roots as a glass installer.” The news came on the heels of word that Grey Mountain has also acquired Global Security Glazing of Selma, Ala.

Please be sure to check for more updates today over at our daily e-news service, USGNN.com.  What’s especially nice about this is that it gives another true installation company with a quasi-national footprint the ability to compete. And I am excited to see Mr. Carillo, who is an extremely impressive guy, get his shot at this as well.

(People sometimes ask me what USGNN stands for. It’s the USGlass News Network. This came about because of a dream I had of someday hearing James Earl Jones say: “This is GNN.” I doubt that will ever happen though, because when James Earl Jones came to speak at a local college last year, someone asked him if he would say a certain phrase from Star Wars.  He declined citing the fact that he was handsomely compensated for doing such things, so I don’t think my dream will ever become a reality. I can still hear it in my sleep though.)

Buy America

Just yesterday I was watching an interesting documentary about our trade with China. Most of the experts consulted, from across the political and ideological spectrum, agreed that legislating or mandating “Buy American” programs would not work. The results, the experts feared, would lead other countries to adopt similar such programs and hurt, rather than help, America in the long run.

The discussion reminded me a news report by ABC News that our associate publisher, Lisa Naugle, recently received from Mark Imbrock of EDTM.

The news report was eye-opening for a few reasons. Notably:

1. It amazed me that absolutely no glass manufacturers and less than 20 fenestration-related products were on the list of products produced in the USA. Glass made in the USA should shout it from the rooftops.

2. The basic laws of economics still apply. If there is more demand for “Made in America” products, there will be a greater supply. And that can be accomplished one person at a time.

The Week Ahead

Ever since I was a young girl, I have always wondered, with a mix of excitement and trepidation, what new things the new year would bring. Every year ever since has had some good and some bad in it, but they’ve all had things I could have never imagined. On to 2012.

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The Story is Always in the Glass–and Happy New Year too!

By on December 31st, 2011

You know, sometimes it takes a customer to remind you what you are doing wrong. And if you read this blog regularly you know I will do so when I am and hope that it not too frequently.

So it is with humble heart that I bow to Earnest Thompson of Guardian Industries, who reminded me of my own motto–that the story is always in the glass.

See our robust editorial staff of eight has been running around trying to ferret out the last stories or come up with those hard-hitting investigative pieces and we missed …. yes, I must say missed …. the biggest stories of the holiday season. And it took Earnest to show us that. He said it better than I ever could in a note he sent over to us yesterday:

“Couldn’t help but notice that USGNN.com missed the big story of the holiday season: the co-starring role of glass in many a holiday flick.  You’ve got your blockbusters like the new Mission Impossible and TinTin movies as well as your evergreens like It’s A Wonderful Life.  Regardless, glass played a major role in each; a major plot element that if eliminated, the story wouldn’t have been the same.  Alas, Hollywood rarely got the details right but that’s often the case so why quibble.  That just means we still have some education to do even with the industry on center stage.  Here are the specifics from at least one holiday critic.
 
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol  The latest in the adventure franchise starring Tom Cruise centers around adventure scenes within and outside (at about the 130th floor) of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building in the heart of Dubai.  Sure, I could boast about the glass that gives the building its distinctive silvery appearance in the heart of a brown and dusty desert (it’s Guardian SunGuard Silver 20, just for the record).  Or, I could talk about the neck snapping action from Budapest to Moscow to Dubai to Mumbai to San Francisco, which sounds like the trade show circuit in the glass industry.  But let’s just focus on how Mr. Cruise, noted for doing his own stunts, manages to sneak into the server room in the core of the building at a high elevation.  Let’s just say that for about fifteen minutes in the middle of the movie we watch IG units being cleanly cut out in a manner only possible in a celluloid fantasy.  And then a vertical scamper on said glazing.  Hey, why let reality get in the way of a darn good yarn.  And, one more time, doesn’t that glass look great?
 
TinTin: The beloved Belgian cartoon character chases trouble around the world like it’s the only architect on a shuttle bus at AIA.  Those in the replacement business will love how glass shatters from opening to close of the animated 3D adventure with nary a nod to laminating or tempering.  But hey, it’s set in another era where fabricators didn’t get the same chance to deploy their talents with wide ranging gusto.  As for the plot, let’s not be a spoiler and only say that it involves an implausible party favor by an opera singer on a piece of bullet proof glass (sic).  
 
It’s a Wonderful Life: Everyone has probably already noticed the glass industry reference in this hoary chestnut but it involves war hero and Bailey brother, Harry.  You remember him, the guy who’s good fortune seemed to mirror the bad luck of big brother George.  The final twist of injustice came in the middle of the movie when Harry reneges on his promise to come home and run the Savings & Loan so George can leave good ol’ Bedford Falls for college and that great big world outside.  But Harry’s fiance drops the big news that her father has offered a fantastic new job where the sky’s the limit and great fortune is assured.  What is that job?  Why, it’s the glass industry and daddy’s company in upstate New York.  Now that’s a wonderful life.
 
I’m sure there are more but I don’t get out much.  It’s just wherever I went this holiday season, the glass industry was there waiting.  Kinda like life, I guess.  We’re every where.  Happy holidays.”

Thank you Earnest, for sharing these hot holiday stories. I must confess that we missed them  and even I, who every year stops and waits for that great line in It’s a Wonderful Life when Harry Bailey tells George he is going on to great things in a glass plant in Buffalo, was just not paying attention. Guess next year instead of investigative journalism we are going to have to send our editors to the movies.

 
My wish for you is a wonderful new year, filled with health, happiness and prosperity. On to 2012.