Andrew McCoy

Every electrical contractor agrees good project managers are hard to find. The first place contractors usually search for high-promise candidates is among the ranks of their best foremen. In part 1 of this series , we covered...

After a 10-year economic expansion, the longest in the country’s history, a U.S. economic downturn is inevitable. No one can precisely predict it. No one can prevent it. But just about everyone can prepare for it. When the...

Staffing shortages have plagued the construction industry in recent years and are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Part of this larger issue is a constant shortage of project managers (PMs). In boom times or...

A business plan is hopefully the first draft of a success story. Purportedly, somewhere in the recipe for success there is a secret ingredient or two. In the business plan for Mid-Michigan Electrical, LLC, the first “special...

Elton Mayo was dumbfounded. The research results in the reports he was reading were exactly opposite of what he had expected to see. It was 1927. He was still new to his job as the first professor of industrial research at...

Try this tomorrow morning: When you’re ready to take a break, go outside your office building. Face the side of the building with the signage bearing the company name and logo. Now try as hard as you can to crank up your...

Many electrical contractors are plagued by a short-sighted view of workforce development, thinking that employee education and training falls outside their responsibility. They expect field electricians and office staff to...

On the bitterly cold and windy afternoon of Dec. 24, 1945, a Liberty ship packed with hundreds of troops returning from the war in Europe cut through frigid water and swirling snow as it passed the Statue of Liberty. Everyone...

“This place looks like a dump!” bellowed Larry, a service electrician, as he opened the door to his customer’s electrical equipment room. He should have closed the door behind him before blurting out his assessment of the...

We don’t “build” buildings anymore. We assemble them. Most of what we have always categorized as “material” now more accurately deserves to be called “products.” Consequently, today in new construction or service work, the...

Every electrical contractor will tell you their business is relationship-based. They owe their success to strong customer relationships. We agree. We also think most ECs could get much more out these relationships. We tested...

Electrical contractors today slap their corporate taglines next to the name of their company in just about every place imaginable—on their fleet vehicles, their office building, their stationery, their business forms, their...