Tag Archives: davies hood

U.S. Failing? Not on My Watch

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By Davies Hood, Induron Executive VP

“In need of more than just a shot of Botox or a facelift, our nation’s infrastructure requires an extreme makeover.” Just as soon as I stop laughing at that ridiculous statement, I’m gonna get scared.

The rapidly deteriorating state of our country’s infrastructure is front and center in the March issue of Free Enterprise, a publication by the United States Chamber of Commerce. This article discusses our infrastructure, from inland waterways to energy transmission to transportation. None seem to be a priority, especially when you consider the fact that “U.S. Infrastructure has plummeted from No. 1 to No. 15 in the World Economic Forum’s economic competitiveness ranking.”

As an avid sports fan and business owner, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m naturally competitive. I am, and I don’t like our country’s precipitous fall. Let’s turn it around!

 

 

Distilling Economic Advantages

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By Davies Hood, Induron Executive VP

Induron Coatings would like to be one of the first to congratulate William Grant & Sons for their recent innovative breakthrough. Sure, their “2011 Distiller of the Year Award” they recently won at the International Wine and Spirit Competition is great, but I’m talking about their “green” breakthrough.

The distillery recently generated enough energy in-house to power their whole operation. That’s right, not only do they distill award-winning spirits, they do it completely “off-the-grid!” Read about it in the February 2012 edition of WE&T (scroll down for the article).

This type of innovation should be advantageous to William Grant & Sons economically from both an operations AND marketing perspective, and should also serve as an inspiration to the rest of us in both private and public business to go “green” where we can.

B for Billion

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By Davies Hood, Induron Executive VP

In this crazy year of politics (that’s really just getting going!), I was enthused by the title of this article in Paint Square from the SSPC: “DOT Budget Plan Built on Infrastructure.”

However, I was more than a little disappointed when I saw that $47B was going towards High Speed Trains, and $108B towards “affordable, sustainable, and efficient transit options.” I thought that’s what High Speed Trains were for? And don’t forget, that B stands for Billion… as in $1,000,000,000.I just hope that the Federal Government is willing to spend at least as much on our aging water and wastewater systems!

Too Many Zeros

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By Davies Hood, Induron Executive Vice President

Today’s economy is tough. Money is hard to come by in both the public and private sectors. And while you and I are trying to make ends meet and ride out the economic storm, the politicians in Washington are gearing up for “another” election cycle that seems to be another excuse for inaction.

All the while, our nation’s aging water infrastructure – much of which was installed at the turn of the 20th century – continues to deteriorate. But there’s an article entitled “Water Infrastructure Could Burden U.S. Economy, Report Claims” in the January 2012 issue of WaterWorld that puts the cold hard numbers to repair cost. Continue reading Too Many Zeros →

What’s the REAL cost?

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By Davies Hood, Induron Executive VP

When you shop for something, whether it’s peanut butter or a Porsche, you want to know what it costs, right? In today’s uncertain economic times, price points and cost are becoming more and more important in everyone’s purchasing decisions.

Valve Magazine recently published an article entitled “Back to Basics: Life-Cycle Costing,” that gave an interesting angle on tools used to assist this process. This article astutely points out that there is more to the true cost of an item than just its sales price. Other factors that affect the total cost are the cost to install, maintain and repair and sometimes even dispose of the product. Continue reading What’s the REAL cost? →

Straight Talk with Davies Hood

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At Induron, we have a relationship based sales model and process. That’s the way we sell our products. I was in sales for years, and now I’m being sold to a lot, so I’ve seen both sides, and it’s the people I’ve really clicked with and become friends with who I like to buy from and who I sold a lot to.

What we’ve learned in 60 plus years of trying at Induron is that the influencers in our business, the water business, are civil engineers. The ones who trust us and with whom we have a genuine friendship with are the ones who we do the most business with. That’s how we’ll continue to do business in the future as well; business based on long term relationships.

I don’t like playing sales games, such as mirroring, and I sure don’t want to ask our sales team to do anything like that. Mirroring is when you go in to meet someone and you cross your arms because theirs are crossed, you make eye contact only because they do or you lean up on the table as they do. I consider that more in the field of manipulation than relationship building. Another game people play is looking for signs that tell them about the person they are meeting with when they first go into their office. I have a piece of artwork in my office of hand-tied flies. Now, I am not a fly fisherman, I just like the piece, so when people come in and automatically start talking about it, I’m not very impressed or interested. You have to take the time to really find out what people are truly interested in.

It’s not usually too difficult to find out these kinds of things about people when you are genuinely engaged with them, because everyone likes to talk about themselves, their hobbies and their interests. As you each exchange this personal information and connect to each other on various levels, a real relationship will be formed. What I personally need to work on is talking less and listening more!

At Induron, We try to make friends first and then make the sale. I want my guys to be genuine and have integrity. Of course we want to make the sale and get the commission today, but we also want to make the sale in five years and in 15 years.