We all know that in times of stress, we look to innovations to help us through. Hence, the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention.” The last year has been a time of stress, and we have been forced to innovate to keep our businesses running. We’ve invented new ways of communicating and working and living so that we don’t infect each other with a deadly virus.
Innovation is at the heart of the Metal Construction Hall of Fame
Innovation is at the heart of the Metal Construction Hall of Fame. The people who have been selected for the honor have, in some way, been innovators. Usually, they didn’t wait for necessity to look to improve something, they just did it.
Walter D. Behlen was called by Time magazine the “Corn-belt Edison” for his devotion to innovation and his success at making those ideas, such as stressed-skinned buildings, work.
Tom Black saw an opportunity for metal roofing to gain a better position in the marketplace, so he stepped in as the first executive director of the Metal Roofing Alliance and saw the market share for metal roofing jump from 3% to over 13%.
Scott Kriner understood that metal building products could fill a role in sustainable construction, so he served as first chairman of the Cool Metal Roofing Alliance and was technical director for the Metal Construction Association.
Mike Reynolds knew that standards of excellence for metal building erectors could be improved, and he wanted everyone to share best practices, so he jumped to work on the “Quality and Craftsmanship Training Series” and helped usher through the AC478 Accreditation.
Terry Wolfe, PE, provided the testing and consulting necessary for small and large companies in the industry to develop innovative products that have become mainstays in the industry.
All of them are innovators and all of them were selected to be in the Metal Construction Hall of Fame this year.
What’s exciting to me beyond recognizing these important people is thinking about who is innovating right now and how they will change the industry. Because, if necessity really is the mother of invention, this last year must have been a boom time for innovation.
You can see it everywhere you look. Grocery stores mainstreamed home deliveries; restaurants developed unique outdoor seating areas to expand their capacity; veterinarians invented methods to deliver pet care without seeing pet owners; and religious organizations devised clever methods for community worship while we still maintained our distance from each other.
Perhaps the biggest and most notable innovations were the development of the vaccines to combat COVID-19 and doing so in record time. We have learned so much over the last year, that it’s exciting to think about what the world will be like 10 years from now as a result of the inventions, ideas and genius that blossomed during this difficult year.
In the meantime, please take a moment to recognize the innovations of this year’s Metal Construction Hall of Fame honorees. Read their stories, congratulate them and check at the previous inductees by going to www.metalconstructionnews.com/metal-construction-hall-of-fame.
