Induron’s business is built on family and culture. Which is to say, a business built on relationships. It is who we are. Simon Sinek’s now-famous TED talk encourages us to “start with why” in building our businesses and our lives. Strategy can tell us what we are going to do and how we want to do it, but you’ll never really inspire passion with that strategy without a compelling answer to why you are doing what you do. Teammates, clients, and other partners need to understand your why if they are going to really buy into a strategy that details what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.
Our why at Induron is simple: we believe we can increase the happiness, safety, and security of our stakeholders when we live out our core values of Innovation, Integrity, Respect, and Reliability. We happen to do it with protective coatings, but we are here to make people’s lives better. I’m not talking about the income we generate for our employees, though that’s an important output, as well. I’m talking about our ability to help a community, an engineering firm, and a contractor have a successful project. I’m talking about why we strive to protect the water and power assets that make our society functional. It’s heavy stuff! It’s all built on relationships, partnerships, and caring about the people around us. That’s exactly why COVID-19 and the isolation it made necessary is so jarring for our business.
Demand for Induron’s products has remained strong throughout the pandemic. We have continued to successfully support those who rely on us while doing our best to keep everyone safe. In the midst of the pandemic, we’ve continued to innovate with new products. In fact, one of our many product innovations quickly stood out as an all-star that we were very excited to get into the marketplace.
Meet Mortarchem – Epoxy modified mortar
Mortarchem is an outstanding epoxy modified cementitious mortar that is far easier to work with than other products currently available. It’s one of those products that seems too good to be true until you apply it yourself. In a normal year, we would have taken it everywhere to introduce it to the engineering and contractor communities. This year we needed a new way to show off a physical product without being physically together.
Enter PaintSquare Connect
Contractor Connect is an event that Induron has been proud to support from the start. It’s rooted in the notion that when contractors and suppliers get to know and understand each other, they find mutually-beneficial ways to grow together.
Though Covid made the traditional Contractor Connect event impossible, our friends at Technology Publishing Company decided the show must go on in the form of PaintSquare Connect— a first of its kind digital conference for the protective coatings industry. The event gave Induron the opportunity to showcase our company and our newest all-star product.
While PaintSquare Connect gave us a stage, it also introduced another question: How do you convey a product with such important physical differentiation across a digital platform? Fortunately for Induron, digital marketing is also a favorite of ours. In particular, we have developed video content that allows us to bring our far-flung projects from around the world into focus.
Applying Mortarchem
So, we got to work. We poured a concrete wall, worked with our friends at Industrial Coatings Group to undertake the surface preparation, and our partners at Quikspray supplied the right pump for the job. We set up the video equipment, and we started applying Mortarchem.
We were able to apply Induron’s Mortarchem side by side with competitor products, and use close up, 4k video to show in detail how superior attributes like viscosity, workability on a trowel, material weight and film build work to make Mortarchem second to none. The final product was a fantastic live webinar that remains available to view here. I think you’ll be impressed by how something so physical can be experienced in a digital format.
COVID-19 changed the playing field, and we have all had to adapt to a new reality. I have learned that our core values and our why are more important now than ever. While we may have to work smarter and harder to create success in this climate, I know we will continue to make it happen as long as we remain committed to helping those who partner with us. PaintSquare Connect was a perfect example of how the relationships in which we have invested in the past, are here to support us today. Even when everything else has changed.