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12/1/2001
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When my one-year term as President of ACI began in March, I attempted to outline a few areas I would like to impact during this short period. As a contractor by trade, I have felt a real need to educate my brethren, "the contractors," on what ACI has done for me personally as well as for my company. Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to begin to share this message with ACI chapters throughout the world. I am encouraged by both the membership and participation that is represented within the ACI chapters globally, and hope that contractor members will continue to be a core part of this group. I would like to share with all of you some of the thoughts I have shared with the ACI chapters I have visited. My involvement with ACI began in the 1970s when a ready-mix supplier and his friend invited me to a local ACI Chapter meeting. Prior to this meeting, I had little exposure to the knowledge community within the construction industry. Baker Concrete had been fortunate enough to become successful through the sheer strength of our workforce as well as our work ethic. We were a young company in many ways, and were willing to do whatever it took to be successful. For all our strengths and initial successes, though, our operating procedures were lacking, and in many ways, we were a very "ordinary" contractor. I believe it is common for many successful contractors to follow the same path as Baker, focusing on manpower and work ethic as the basic building blocks of the business. While these are both vital ingredients for a successful contracting business, I soon became convinced of the fact that consistent work practices and quality control are just a few of the other elements that can pave the way for taking a contracting business to a whole new level. The local chapter educated us about such topics as ACI Guide specs, specific procedures for curing, and hot/cold weather concreting. In the process, we met many partners within the construction industry, including architects, engineers, and owners. As a company, we were exposed to knowledge and information, and quality issues for the first time. The local chapter of ACI opened my eyes to the fact that Baker had huge potential for growth and improvement. We embraced this new information wholeheartedly. Our performance capabilities increased, and the education offered by the local ACI chapter was instrumental. We were soon tackling projects containing challenging specs, including light-reflective and high-tolerance floors, and architectural concrete. My ACI network provided multiple resources for the situations where, as a company, we waded in "where angels fear to tread" and needed some expertise to help get us through some complex situations. An example of this came in the 1980s when we took on a project for RJ Reynolds in the Carolinas. A risk taker by nature, I agreed to FF/FL numbers on elevated decks that Baker had never tackled before. Little did I know that the rest of the concrete construction industry had never achieved these numbers and, by all accounts, they were impossible to meet. In trying to reach those FL numbers (and failing), we utilized the networking support of ACI to meet with Allen Face and discover that our limitations were not necessarily unique. This type of networking became invaluable to me as a contractor. The ability to learn, teach, and share with others within the same industry gave Baker an edge in many arenas. We grew dramatically as a company, and on a personal level, I gained an enormous amount of respect for the talented individuals within our industry. I continued my involvement at the Chapter level, including serving as an officer for several years. I found myself having the same discussions with our local ACI members over issues that we could not resolve at our local level. After numerous discussions, several of the members encouraged me to take our challenges to the ACI Convention and help share the contractor’s point of view. So, in the mid-1980s, I finally went to Convention. As I have mentioned before, my first experiences with ACI International can be likened to when Davy Crockett first came to Congress. It was an intimidating experience! I was a finisher by trade, a backwoods guy, among all the bright, brilliant, and talented minds of ACI. Convention opened me up to a true awareness of the concrete construction community as a whole. I met mentors, began to serve on committees, and found myself at a level where I was exposed to a forum of sharing best practices: a true "meeting of the minds." My understanding and appreciation for all sides of the construction process was heightened as I began to get into the real "meat" of the issues and met with some of the nation’s most esteemed architects, engineers, and educators. As my ACI network grew, so did Baker Concrete. Our increased capacity allowed us to diversify into various market types and expand into other geographic regions. ACI gave us both the knowledge and awareness to begin to look at our business differently. I gained a better understanding of market focus and the idea that you cannot be all things to all people. This helped us define niches where we could be the most competitive and profitable. We became one of the few contractors to be successful in both the Industrial Floor market as well as the Commercial/Institutional market. I give credit to my ACI experience for the new paths it has allowed our company to pursue. I truly believe it is only if we stretch ourselves through consistently remaining aware of new knowledge, information, and other perspectives both personally and professionally that we can improve our industry, our companies, and our projects. Many contractors I know feel like they can’t commit the time or the energy to become involved with organizations like ACI. My response would be that you can’t afford not to. I would advise each of you that if you want to achieve the most within your organization, and improve the construction community as a whole, ACI is a great place to start. Daniel L. Baker,President,American Concrete Institute Back to Past-Presidents' Memo List
When my one-year term as President of ACI began in March, I attempted to outline a few areas I would like to impact during this short period. As a contractor by trade, I have felt a real need to educate my brethren, "the contractors," on what ACI has done for me personally as well as for my company.
Over the past few months, I have had the opportunity to begin to share this message with ACI chapters throughout the world. I am encouraged by both the membership and participation that is represented within the ACI chapters globally, and hope that contractor members will continue to be a core part of this group. I would like to share with all of you some of the thoughts I have shared with the ACI chapters I have visited.
My involvement with ACI began in the 1970s when a ready-mix supplier and his friend invited me to a local ACI Chapter meeting. Prior to this meeting, I had little exposure to the knowledge community within the construction industry. Baker Concrete had been fortunate enough to become successful through the sheer strength of our workforce as well as our work ethic. We were a young company in many ways, and were willing to do whatever it took to be successful.
For all our strengths and initial successes, though, our operating procedures were lacking, and in many ways, we were a very "ordinary" contractor. I believe it is common for many successful contractors to follow the same path as Baker, focusing on manpower and work ethic as the basic building blocks of the business. While these are both vital ingredients for a successful contracting business, I soon became convinced of the fact that consistent work practices and quality control are just a few of the other elements that can pave the way for taking a contracting business to a whole new level.
The local chapter educated us about such topics as ACI Guide specs, specific procedures for curing, and hot/cold weather concreting. In the process, we met many partners within the construction industry, including architects, engineers, and owners. As a company, we were exposed to knowledge and information, and quality issues for the first time. The local chapter of ACI opened my eyes to the fact that Baker had huge potential for growth and improvement.
We embraced this new information wholeheartedly. Our performance capabilities increased, and the education offered by the local ACI chapter was instrumental. We were soon tackling projects containing challenging specs, including light-reflective and high-tolerance floors, and architectural concrete.
My ACI network provided multiple resources for the situations where, as a company, we waded in "where angels fear to tread" and needed some expertise to help get us through some complex situations. An example of this came in the 1980s when we took on a project for RJ Reynolds in the Carolinas. A risk taker by nature, I agreed to FF/FL numbers on elevated decks that Baker had never tackled before. Little did I know that the rest of the concrete construction industry had never achieved these numbers and, by all accounts, they were impossible to meet.
In trying to reach those FL numbers (and failing), we utilized the networking support of ACI to meet with Allen Face and discover that our limitations were not necessarily unique. This type of networking became invaluable to me as a contractor. The ability to learn, teach, and share with others within the same industry gave Baker an edge in many arenas. We grew dramatically as a company, and on a personal level, I gained an enormous amount of respect for the talented individuals within our industry.
I continued my involvement at the Chapter level, including serving as an officer for several years. I found myself having the same discussions with our local ACI members over issues that we could not resolve at our local level. After numerous discussions, several of the members encouraged me to take our challenges to the ACI Convention and help share the contractor’s point of view. So, in the mid-1980s, I finally went to Convention.
As I have mentioned before, my first experiences with ACI International can be likened to when Davy Crockett first came to Congress. It was an intimidating experience! I was a finisher by trade, a backwoods guy, among all the bright, brilliant, and talented minds of ACI. Convention opened me up to a true awareness of the concrete construction community as a whole. I met mentors, began to serve on committees, and found myself at a level where I was exposed to a forum of sharing best practices: a true "meeting of the minds." My understanding and appreciation for all sides of the construction process was heightened as I began to get into the real "meat" of the issues and met with some of the nation’s most esteemed architects, engineers, and educators.
As my ACI network grew, so did Baker Concrete. Our increased capacity allowed us to diversify into various market types and expand into other geographic regions. ACI gave us both the knowledge and awareness to begin to look at our business differently. I gained a better understanding of market focus and the idea that you cannot be all things to all people. This helped us define niches where we could be the most competitive and profitable. We became one of the few contractors to be successful in both the Industrial Floor market as well as the Commercial/Institutional market. I give credit to my ACI experience for the new paths it has allowed our company to pursue.
I truly believe it is only if we stretch ourselves through consistently remaining aware of new knowledge, information, and other perspectives both personally and professionally that we can improve our industry, our companies, and our projects. Many contractors I know feel like they can’t commit the time or the energy to become involved with organizations like ACI. My response would be that you can’t afford not to. I would advise each of you that if you want to achieve the most within your organization, and improve the construction community as a whole, ACI is a great place to start.
Daniel L. Baker,President,American Concrete Institute
Back to Past-Presidents' Memo List
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