More in depth articles
The Granite Guys, located in Alberta, Canada, was founded nine years ago by Ken and Loma Usselman. They had already owned Call Canadian Plumbing & Heating Ltd. for more than a decade, but they recognized that the granite countertop market was underserved in the area. Soon after opening their new business, they realized … Read more
Oldcastle Surfaces, headquartered in Atlanta, is one of the largest countertop fabricators in North America, with six regional locations in the Southeast. Now part of a large family of businesses under the CRH umbrella (which employs 76,000 people in 35 countries), it was originally founded by one man fabricating solid … Read more
The backbone for National Stone Marble & Granite, based in Shrewsbury, Mass., was created during the recent recession and not only did the business not go under, it thrived. According to John Howard, he was able to do so by basing his business on making sure he had quality staff … Read more
By Jean Kelley If you look back over your career, chances are you can identify one or two people who stand out as memorable leaders. Even if these people didn’t hold an official leadership role, their actions and words rallied people together to achieve a common goal. Whether that goal … Read more
Dream Stone, in Longmont, Colo., like many stone fabricators these days, has had to face low-priced competitors. However, owner Scott Murphy made a decision to not play the pricing game and instead focus on high-quality craftsmanship. Instead of dropping his prices to try to compete with the low-priced companies in … Read more
By Michael Menard Despite the wealth of information available to us, many of today’s best and brightest business leaders still make poor decisions. This is unfortunate because sound decision making is at the heart of every company’s success. Even if you have the best education and years of experience, it’s … Read more
Old World Stone, in Huntley, Ill., does a good bit of business in Chicagoland. Much of this has to do with the tenacity and want to do things right posessed by owner, JimVaccaro. Where being entrenched in the builder business in 2008 (to the tune of 95 percent) might have … Read more