Don't be Well-Meaning, but Misguided

About 17 years ago, I shared the story below at a construction-industry-association annual convention. 

Though the social, cultural, political, and economic challenges we currently face are dramatically different than those confronted by construction professionals in pandemic-free 2004, the story’s lessons apply today.

The Parable of the Well-Meaning Ready-Mixed Concrete Producer

A well-meaning, but misguided small-town ready-mixed-concrete producer decided to fight indifference in the construction industry.

An action-oriented individual, he visited the town library, X-acto knife nestling in the inside pocket of his black Carhartt coat, determined to cut the word indifference from the township’s vocabulary.

Sitting at the Reference Desk, he opened the first of fifteen Webster Dictionaries. The offending word was easy to find ... listlessly laying between Indies and indifulvin.

He unsheathed the X-acto blade, closed his eyes to envision a town without indifference, then opened them again to set about his task.

The blade never made it to the page.

“Excuse me!” whispered the distressed voice of the town librarian. “What do you think you are doing?!? 

Confident his cause was just, the ready-mix producer explained how he was fighting indifference. He was sure the librarian would understand.

She did listen intently. Then she smiled.

Moving back and forth between the desk and the reference shelves, she started stacking plies of American Heritage and Funk and Wagnells next to his Websters.

“Go to it!” she intoned. “And while you are at it, cut out the words “apathy,” “disdain,” “coldness,” “inattention,” “listlessness,” “neutrality,” “nonchalance,” and “unconcern.”

Overwhelmed by the task at hand, the producer put the blade back in his pocket and walked away.

What lessons can we learn from the well-intentioned, but misguided ready-mix producer?

First, we can affirm that librarians are very smart people.

Second, we can understand that fighting indifference is a noble cause, best started by challenging the face we see in the mirror, every day.

Indifference is a most insidious creature. It lurks in our attitudes, actions, and inactions, in our feelings and concerns. It is capable of lengthy stagnation and sudden growth.

It is also capable of developing in unusual ways … never to the benefit of the construction industry.

Hope Ahead? Don’t Be Your Own Worst Enemy

Only one year ago (2020), the U.S. construction industry was on a roll.  It employed more than 7.5 million persons, and its first-quarter contribution to the country’s economy was at the highest level since the 2008 Great Recession.

Then pandemic hit, effectively – per Michelle Meisels of Deloitte Consulting LLP – wiping out two-years of construction-industry gross domestic product (GDP) gains and four years of job gains.

In its newest U.S. economic forecast – based on information available as of January 12, 2021 – the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects the U.S. economy will continue to strengthen over the next five years. A GPD average growth rate of 2.6% is forecast through 2025; employment returns to pre-pandemic levels in 2024; the federal funds rate remains near zero through mid-2024; and inflation rises gradually … but not above 2% annually ... until after 2023.

The Portland Cement Association’s (PCA) most recent U.S. economic forecast is more modest, predicting a 1% growth in U.S. cement consumption for 2021.

It doesn’t matter if CBO or PCA proves to be the more accurate forecaster. 

Regardless of how the scenario plays out, there will be millions (perhaps billions) of dollars of construction spending in your delivery area(s) that will go from pre-planning stage to final bidding without any contact from your segment of the construction industry.

I said indifference was insidious. It becomes downright obscene when you start attaching dollars to it.

The antidote for indifference is constructive action. Regarding market demand and consumption, marketing can help you to control your destiny. 

Each project being planned for construction in your delivery area in 2021 is a chance to ask for greater use of your construction product, installation, or service offering(s). Barring another, pandemic-like collapse of the U.S. economy, there will be more opportunities to expand your market in the years directly ahead than you are able to contact.

The small-town ready-mix producer had a just cause, but no concrete action plan. Will you do better? Or will the task overwhelm you as well?

Don’t be a well-meaning construction professional. Starting today, resolve to fight indifference with the passion, and faith, and marketing-action-plan of a true construction evangelist.