If COVID-19 taught us anything, it was that we need to be ready to adapt and make the changes necessary to keep our people, businesses and industries moving forward in times of uncertainty. The willingness to change and adapt became as essential as construction during the pandemic to ensure people stayed safe and to maintain critical connections on and off the jobsite. For many, it required transitioning to unfamiliar tools and technologies.
Though the pandemic accelerated many changes, the construction industry had already been in the process of slowly moving toward a more connected industry and jobsite. The growing adoption of telematics, machine grade control, building information modeling, online equipment purchasing and other tools prior to COVID’s disruptions is proof that the industry had begun to recognize the necessity of making sometimes difficult, and at times costly, changes in order to become more productive, competitive and profitable long term.
When I first began working on Equipment Today as an editorial assistant in March of 1991, the willingness to embrace such change would have been far more difficult to muster. Even after I came back to the publication in October 1998 as editor after a 3 1/2-year hiatus working in another industry, the commercial construction sector still seemed fairly set in its ways, with only an inkling of the possibilities to come from advances in equipment and technologies.
That’s why it’s so exciting to see many in the industry today taking a proactive approach to implementing equipment and technological advancements within their organizations. It’s also exciting to see the investment being made in the industry to help move it forward and enable it to address its obstacles while embracing new opportunities.
Such changes are often hard, and they can be painful. But they can also be necessary and even to business growth, and even survival as the pandemic so aptly demonstrated.
Change isn’t easy, no matter what form your business takes or the role you play in it. In my case, it’s proven bittersweet. After a long and fruitful career, I have chosen to move on to a new opportunity and leave behind a publication, and an industry segment, that I have happily embraced for nearly three decades. Serving the commercial construction community has proven an honor and a pleasure. And even as we sought to educate you as an audience, you have taught me so very much, which I will gladly carry with me in my new endeavors.
While I will continue to work in the construction industry in a different capacity, it is still hard to say goodbye to the wonderful people I’ve worked with and encountered throughout my time with this publication. It helps to know you will continue to find the insights you need within these pages to help you make educated choices about the changes you can make to enhance and grow your business. I’m also confident you will see information about even more opportunities to find the information, equipment, technologies and services that can help propel your businesses forward for the foreseeable future.
As my parting thought, I encourage you to be willing to see the changes ahead as fresh opportunities worth exploring, and that you will strive to embrace those changes, if appropriate, to further the success of your business.
