Opinion

“Regarding 'An interview with Manufacturer X' -- I chuckled to myself when I read this recent anonymous interview. My first question to Mr. X: Why the anonymity? Embarrassed that you probably shipped hundreds of jobs to a Communist regime bent on destroying the West and dominating the world? Strengthening a financial system already holding trillions of dollars of American debt and wielding it as a threat in negotiations with the U.S. government?

The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) recently released its national legislative and regulatory policy agenda.


In it, NLBMDA calls on Congress to encourage financial institutions to renew lending activity that will spur new-home construction, while also encouraging the need to review federal rules and regulations that stifle job creation.


If your company’s overarching online strategy sounds like this: “Integrate real-time platforms,” then your company is in trouble for two reasons. 1) The three words above were generated randomly by the Dack.com Web Economy Bulls--t Generator; and 2) Few people know what any of those words mean individually, let alone in conjunction with one another.


You gotta have a plan, in English. 


RISI, a leading provider of information about the forest products industry, has announced the appointment of Wade Camp as senior wood products economist. Camp comes to RISI from the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, where he held the title of director of economic services. 

Camp's career spans three decades and multiple roles from production to economic modeling, working for companies and associations such as International Paper, Georgia-Pacific and the Southern Forest Products Association. 

As a result of too much good material and not enough space, here is a collection of semi-random notes from the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla.  


• Question: Does anybody really pay $99 a day for Internet connection — the asking price at the convention center? 


• I told my cab driver what I was doing in Orlando. 


“That’s funny,” he said. 


“Why?”


Throughout the downturn of the last four years or so we have seen the lumber and building materials industry shrink dramatically. Some estimates of sales shrinkage at the dealer level put it beyond 50%. In some markets, that estimate is absurdly low. There is no denying that everyone in all segments and steps in the chain is battered. Unfortunately, even the homeowner/consumer is somewhat damaged as well. 


Lowe’s chairman emeritus Robert Strickland was inducted into the Home Channel Hall of Fame four years ago. As he approached the podium, he seemed as relaxed as you or I might be approaching the office microwave at lunchtime.


“I would like tonight to talk about A, B, C,” he began. And with those three first initials, he launched into a discourse that summed up the lessons learned from a career of successful retailing — or as close a summation as three words can get to a 41-year career.


“There are no sissies left in this business.”


That’s the official Home Channel News quote of the month, from Rick Frost, the CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based Louisiana-Pacific.