The Euclid Chemical Company, founded
in 1910, is today a worldwide supplier of quality products and
services for the concrete and masonry industry. Marketed under
the EUCO, Tamms, Dural and Speed Crete brand names, we offer
a full line of concrete construction products based on the latest
technologies for new, repair and maintenance applications. The
Euclid Chemical Company is unique in our offering of superior
products and unparalleled customer service and industry support.
Euclid products are now available from all New South branches.
Look for many new products from
QC Construction Products in
2008!
QC Construction Products provides a comprehensive product line
for the architectural concrete industry. A family of dependable,
durable products designed to work
together in creating stunning effects. Integral colors, color hardeners,
release agents, reactive and penetrating stains, penetrating
dye, solid-color stain,
stampable and micro-topping overlays. Along with curing agents, accessory
products and a variety of sealers, QC Construction Products
has the products necessary
to maintain the beauty of each project, year after year.
Quality extends beyond our product line. Nationwide distribution,
an experienced sales team, the industry’s best technical direction
and knowledgeable Customer Service Representatives are available
to give you a clear edge over the competition. Specification assistance
(IIDA, ASLA, AIA/CES, CSI), product demonstrations, production samples,
sales aids and literature are available to ensure the client gets
what they want. QC Construction Products has color lab technicians
on site to provide color matching and custom color services meeting
the challenges of project perfection.
Everything we do at QC Construction Products is geared towards you.
Contractors, architects, designers, construction managers and homeowners
are all part of our business and members of the QC family. Our products
are in your home, children’s schools, offices and the mall
where you shopped last week... We’re with you every step of
the way.
Get ahead of the pack
All leaders want to be part of a top-performing company. All
employees do, too. And partners and customers seek out businesses that are
at the top of
their game, as well. It’s natural to want to spend our working hours
engaged with dynamic organizations that flourish, not struggling ones that
flounder. But have you ever wondered what makes a company a top performer?
Rick Lepsinger has—and when his company did a research study on a
related subject, he discovered some surprising answers.
“
Our research on how top-performing companies prepare for and manage change
and what they do to ensure they are able to execute plans and strategies effectively
reveals some interesting similarities and differences between the most and
least successful companies,” says Lepsinger, president of OnPoint Consulting
(onpointconsultingllc.com) and coauthor along with Dr. Gary Yukl of Flexible
Leadership: Creating Value by Balancing Multiple Challenges and Choices (Jossey-Bass/A
Wiley Imprint, 2004, ISBN: 0-7879-6531-6, $44.00).
“
First, the similarities between the two groups are striking,” he continues. “Companies
in both categories can point to visions that employees believe are clear and
strategies that are perceived to be realistic. They have employees who understand
that the “customer is king” and who are engaged and have the
skills required to do their jobs.”
What, then, differentiates the very best companies from those
that are less successful? Lepsinger says top-performing companies are characterized
by
cultures that are flexible, adaptive, participative and innovative — and
they operationalize these cultural attributes through leader behavior
and organizational
structure and systems.
Leader behavior: Four ways to lead your company into “top-performer” territory
“
Leaders in top-performing companies are capable in four areas: managing paradoxes,
leading change, participative leadership and leading by example,” says
Lepsinger.
If you’re a leader, you need to ensure that you’re comfortable
in all four areas. If you’re a CEO, make sure all your leaders
meet the following criteria:
1) Get comfortable with managing paradoxes. Leaders in top-performing
companies are better at finding the right balance between what appears
to be mutually
exclusive outcomes: achieving short- and long-term goals, establishing
control and providing autonomy, ensuring stability and managing change,
and keeping
costs low and quality high while growing the business. They are also
better able to manage the sometimes contradictory needs of customers,
employees
and stockholders/owners.
2) Understand (and use) the five magic keys to managing
change. OnPoint’s
research identifies five behaviors that enhance the ability to lead
and manage change effectively:
Be forthright about the change and its impact. Sixty-four
percent of the 655 participants in OnPoint’s survey said that open and honest communication
from leaders, even when they don’t have all the answers, would make change
easier. People want leaders to be accessible and to engage in “change
talk.” What is change talk? Lepsinger says it’s an open discussion
of the pros and cons of making the change or maintaining the status quo, and
of the behaviors required to support the change and boost people’s
confidence in their ability to transition successfully to the new
way of doing things.
Model behaviors that support the change. It is not
enough to just say the right thing or even enthusiastically communicate the
benefits
and
the business
case
for the change. Employees want to see those words backed up with
behavior. That is how they judge how effectively someone is leading
and managing
a change.
Set realistic objectives and milestones. As employees reach
realistic goals and milestones, they become more positive about the change
and will see
its benefits. Targeting unattainable goals will frustrate and
demoralize
employees
during the first few critical months, and the time and energy
you’ve
spent preparing for the change will have been a waste.
Don’t underestimate the resources required. Over committing
existing resources or underestimating what it takes to accomplish
objectives is a
primary cause of change initiatives failing to meet their intended
outcomes. Keep in
mind that your employees have commitments to annual performance
goals in addition to the work they need to do to make the change a success.
Maintain enthusiasm and excitement among your employees. During
the first month of a change, managers meet with employees to get
their
support.
After the first
month, though, those managers return to their day-to-day jobs,
and employees can lose focus. Leaders need to model behaviors that
support
the change
for the duration of the initiative, not just at the kickoff.
3) Involve team members in the decisions that affect them. Participative
leadership matters. In 2006, the NBA introduced a new basketball
and never asked the players
for input while it was in development. As a result, the players
refused to use a new ball they felt was difficult to handle. Involving
the
players early
on would have increased the quality of the ball and the acceptance
of the decision.
“
Employees should be involved in critical decisions that affect them, and they
should be able to freely share their thoughts and concerns,” notes Lepsinger. “It
gives employees a sense of ownership and nothing truly great can
occur in the absence of that.”
4) Lead by example. Leaders in top-performing companies understand
that people will not trust or follow them if they are not willing
to live
by the same
values and support the same priorities they require of others.
Take, for example,
two contrasting approaches to the leadership by example factor:
Donald Carty, former president of American Airlines, who offered
gigantic “stay bonuses” to
senior executives after asking employees to take significant pay and benefits
cuts, and Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan, who, when he took over the floundering
company in 1999, pledged to step down if Nissan failed to show a profit in
2000. Carty lost credibility and had to step down, while Ghosn is celebrated
as a “master of execution” and a “turnaround artist.”
Structure and Systems: Three ways to change yours for the better
“
Of course, having the best leaders in the world won’t matter if your
organization isn’t set up in a way that allows them to use their skills,” says
Lepsinger. “As our research revealed, your corporate structure and operational
systems are just as important as your leader’s behavior.”
Here are some goals to shoot for:
1) Strike a proper balance of centralized and decentralized
responsibility and ensure that people at all levels have the freedom to take
action to achieve results. This improves responsiveness and
allows issues
to be managed
right
where they happen.
When Mark Hurd took over as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, he understood
that the key to success was to make the Compaq acquisition
work. He did
just that
when he reorganized the company into three divisions, with
each division having
its own sales force, making the heads of the divisions responsible
for sales. He also reorganized the IT function. Instead of
having 85 data
centers, he
centralized them into three. Essentially, he decentralized
the sales force and centralized the IT function of the company.
This
is the
opposite of
the way the company was organized before, and it ensured the
organizational structure
would be better aligned with the business strategy. One measure
of HP’s
success is that operating profit increased during 2006 by 31
percent.
2) Excel at coordinating decisions and actions across
organizational
boundaries. In 2006, Ford demonstrated how difficult this is.
When the company decided
to update the Ford Focus, the North American operation wanted
to simply refresh the existing model, while the European operation
wanted to
develop a new
version of the model. The two groups couldn’t come to an agreement, so they each
did what they wanted to do. The North American group updated the existing model,
and the European group developed a new model. As a result, Ford couldn’t
share parts or take advantage of economies of scale and it
cost the company money.
3) Ensure that systems are aligned with strategic initiatives. For example, if your strategy calls for innovation, does the
organization have systems
in place to facilitate organizational learning and creative
thinking? To encourage
innovation, a company needs a mechanism to screen and fund
these ideas.
“
Individuals shouldn’t have to struggle to find support and resources
to help develop their ideas,” says Lepsinger. “People frequently
cite the efforts of Art Fry and Spencer Silver, the 3M employees who invented
Post-Its, as a shining success story of personal initiative and perseverance.
We would ask, ‘Why did those guys have to work so hard? Wouldn’t
it have been better for everyone if a support system had been in place?’“
The bottom line? Being a top-performing company is a rigorous
challenge not for the faint of heart. Indeed, recent events
at Dell, Motorola,
and Chrysler
illustrate how difficult it is to execute effectively and maintain
top performance year after year. Still, the results are worth
the effort.
“
Becoming a top performer requires constant attention to the differentiating
factors discussed above and a willingness to review and continuously improve
products, services, and the business model itself,” says Lepsinger. “But
the alternative is settling for mediocrity, and in a global economy mediocrity
is the kiss of death. After you claw your way to the head of the pack, and
after you realize how much fun you and your employees are having, you’ll
be glad you didn’t settle.”
RectorSeal: A LEEDer in Green Building
RectorSeal provides
the only complete line of firestopping products that contain no harmful
chemicals or poisons (such as ethylene glycol.)
Made in the USA, our products meet the requirements for earning LEED
accreditation points. With unparalleled quality, our “NO Time
Limit” warranty, and built-in mold inhibitors, they contribute
to the sustainable design concept of your building project. RectorSeal
firestop sealants eliminate the health hazards associated with installation,
are safe for the environment you work in, have excellent freeze-thaw
capabilities and do not require hazardous waste disposal for used materials.
Add firestopping value, life-safety cpliance and peace of mind to
your projects by calling your nearest New South branch today. 
