Alchatek Blog

"No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time.  You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
– Warren Buffet

In my career, I have never worked for the 800-pound gorilla. My 12 years have been spent pioneering brands and eating elephants one bite at a time, as a good friend of mine always says. In a lot of ways, my DNA is programmed for the daily grind required to promote a brand and climb the ladder to one day become industry-leading.  

When assuming a new role with Alchemy-Spetec, I was very intrigued by the amount of technical expertise that the team offered. Having longtime industry experience in every facet of the business is very appealing to all of us. We have all come from well-established industry brands, with many of our team members being a part of the industry-leading chemical grouting manufacturer for decades. Now two months in, it’s very clear that all of the experience in the world does not substitute for the daily grind process required to achieve company-wide goals.  

The partnership of Alchemy-Spetec will be celebrating its 1-year mark as of March, 2018. It has been an exciting time for everyone on both sides. However, a long road of specification work and project support lies ahead. One of the things I like most about the building materials industry is that it is very grounded and straight forward. There are no shortcuts in our world. The path is clearly paved for what needs to be done to create a well-known brand.

1. Develop and manufacture quality products
2. Clearly define performance benefits
3. Market products to design professionals and end-users
4. Deliver on supply chain
5. Provide top-notch on-site support
6. Repeat

There is no way to skip any of these steps other than to hustle more than the next company (who may be ahead of, or coming after, us). I’m confident that wherever you find an Alchemy-Spetec team member, you’ll find them hustling through the process outlined above. And in the event that you are unaware of our team's technical capabilities, not to worry, we are confident that you will soon work with us on a chemical grouting project. We welcome all constructive criticism to improve as we aim to be the industry-leader in chemical grouting solutions...but after all, some things just take time.   

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec products?

“There’s always a better way to do it – find it.” – Thomas Edison

Our personal brand is an app that our network uses.

It’s professional human instinct to hide behind our product line. If we lose a deal, we tell ourselves it's due to a number of variables ranging from inability to deliver on timeframe or specification, pricing constraints, etc. etc. Ask yourself how often you critically observe perhaps your most impactful brand and product: Yourself. What if your interaction with your industry was analogous to a smart phone user’s interaction with their apps? How sticky is your experience, and how often do you fix bugs?

There’s always a better way to do it. I couldn’t agree with Thomas Edison more. In this technological age, downloading applications, and updates for them, is second nature. Again, consider yourself an app with your brand being your name. How often do you release updates?

According to SaavyApps.com:

- Most successful apps release 1-4 updates a month.

- Update frequency will depend on user feedback, data, and team size.

- Most feature updates should be scoped to be no more than two weeks.

- Balance faster bug fixing updates with longer feature releases.

- Plan 2-4 updates in advance but keep attuned to market demands.

Why App Updates Matter

Although most don't know it, app updates are one of the best marketing tools app developers have at their disposal. With the number of apps people have installed on their devices today, regular updates can help an app get more mindshare relative to other apps on a device. Releasing regular updates keeps an app top of mind because it will show up in the updates list like the App Store or Google Play Store. Apple and Google also like to see app updates, especially with their major OS releases, which is why we recommend to have your app updated on major OS launch days.

Now read the paragraph above thinking of yourself as the app and updates being how you improve yourself. What updates can you share with your network (users)? Did you get your MBA, gain an industry accreditation, support a milestone project, get a promotion, or lead a successful product launch? Share these updates with your network. In my opinion, humility is one of the greatest skills one can harness to achieve goals, but it can also be detrimental if you’re hesitant to share accomplishments or self-improvements with those around you. View each accomplishment and improvement as one of your app updates. And always ask yourself when you released the last one.

In this day and age, our own personal brand is everywhere in social and professional media. People are interacting with our personal app every day. Remember that your personal brand can, and does, win and lose opportunities. Be sure to update frequently, and to share those with your end-users openly. There’s always a way to improve – find it!

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

A week removed from my 12^th consecutive World of Concrete, I’m finally getting my head above water.  We all know that overwhelming feeling following a week-long tradeshow as you cut through your follow ups while juggling that full-time job you had before you went.  It can certainly be a bit stressful, but in many ways, it’s the exact jolt in the arm we need to shake us out of any year-end lull that may still be lingering.  It’s definitely 2018, and the reality of new goals is upon us all.

My 12^th show was a bit different this year.  It was my first year with a new company, and in a new role.  It was met with a bit of nervous anxiety about the conversations and interactions that lie ahead as I gel with my new colleagues and catch up with familiar faces.  The week came and went, and another week has passed, and I have now been able to reflect on my experience at the show with a clear mind.  And the only thing I can come up with is a feeling of appreciation for the industry and people we surround ourselves with in our concrete world (how fitting to coin the show World of Concrete). 

The quote below rings truer than I perhaps have ever given it credit:

“Your network is the people who want to help you, and you want to help them, and that’s really powerful.” – Reid Hoffman

All week, I was met with open hands and genuine well-wishes for myself and my new role.  Many people commenting on how small of a world it is, and how you never know where you will end up.  And after a few minutes catching up, the conversations led seamlessly into, ‘so tell me what about your products.’  I owe a big thank you to my partners from all sides of the business, including customers, distributors, and vendors, for making the industry we work in perhaps one of the best out there. 

The construction industry is for a certain type of person.  It’s a bit raw, can be rough around the edges, and certainly doesn’t require a designer suit to achieve excellence.  It’s a real industry, with real people, trying to make a decent living for their own families as well as for those with whom they partner.  So, I salute those partners who wished me, and our company, well at the show.  It is great to know that my partners want to help me, and that only makes me want to help them more, and that’s really powerful. 

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

“If you don’t love something, you’re not going to go the extra mile, work the extra weekend, challenge the status quo as much.” – Steve Jobs

Who is Colt Hullander? Even if you're an experienced concrete repair industry professional, you still may not know this man by name. He started his grouting career on the contractor side directly out of high school. For the next several years, he developed key skills in the chemical grouting space with countless hours in the field lifting slabs and stabilizing soils. During these years, Colt gained priceless experience in an extremely technical process: mixing and pumping single and dual component polymer grouts through expensive multi-component proportioning equipment at high volumes to stabilize and lift very large structures in both the public and private sector. Some would say these are some of the most important skills one could have in our industry. But his commitment to his team is far more impressive.

Fast forward to Christmas weekend, 2017. Over the next four weeks, including all weekends, a typical week for Colt involved servicing field technical support, welding several custom made structures up to 10’ tall (some in aluminum!), building custom-made wood demo models with masonry block faces, designing and fabricating a custom cart for a several hundred-pound piece of equipment, and much more. Most of us would see this is a lot of work. However, the job had yet to begin.

Two weeks ago, on a Wednesday afternoon, Colt loaded up an F-350 with a 20’ trailer full of all of the above-mentioned items, and more, and left Atlanta, GA. He drove for 4 days until he reached Las Vegas on Saturday. Once there, Colt worked the entire weekend assembling an entire show display prepared for the 70,000 people that were about to come through the doors. As the Sales and Management team poured into company meetings on Monday, Colt excused himself only to return to the lot for last-minute setup well into the night-time hours. On Tuesday morning, Colt assumed his position in the booth as a live demo operator conducting live applications every 2 hours, all week long. On Friday of last week, Colt packed up all of the remaining gear and set out from Las Vegas, making the drive back to Atlanta. Three days later, Colt would be back in Atlanta, coming to work the very next day. I spoke to Colt today, and to little surprise, he was on a job-site. Colt Hullander is an Alchemy-Spetec Technical Field Services Representative, and we are very proud to have him on our team.

It’s appropriate to thank our entire team for all of their work last week at World of Concrete. Colt is certainly not the only one on our team who deserves a blog notice. And undoubtedly, many of you reading this have those teammates who went the extra mile as well. But true to the format of this People section, it was an easy choice to share the story of Colt Hullander. Well done Colt! And well done to all of those who make World of Concrete such a productive week for all attendees.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

“It always seems impossible until it’s done” – Nelson Mandella

These is a tricky blog subject to connect with a broad audience.  Prioritization of principles is such a subjective topic that there really is no one way to frame it.  Principles that work for one organization may be vastly different than others, while both may be wildly successful.  Let’s examine the differences in one of the most well-discussed company principles known to us all – work hours. 

Elon Musk is commonly quoted with messages suggesting that most successful people simply put in more hours than others.  He has famously been known to work 100+ hour weeks, and suggests that if you work twice the hours of a competitor in a given year, it will take you 6 months to achieve what they do in an entire year.  Sure, this sounds idealistically simple coming from a genius with laser focused visions, but the point is well taken in concept.  And in principle it is true, you have to be willing to out-work your competition.  There are no two ways about this in anything you do.  Now, the art lies in how you outwork them.  If you implement systems modeled around efficiency, perhaps you can accomplish things in 24 hours that would previously require 48.  In theory, with efficient modeling and hard-work, your organization can even out-pace competitors working 100+ hours each week, right?  The debate around working harder or smarter is a circular one.  With the winning position going to working smart and hard. 

On the other side of this spectrum, let’s consider Richard Branson.  Branson believes in a flexible working condition in which employees can utilize technology to work from home and have unlimited leave which Virgin believes adds to an increase in their happiness and productivity.  Now, if you’re like many of us, your reality probably lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremely successful business owner approaches.  So, which the right one?  My humble belief is that it encompasses all of the topics in this blog series, People, Partners, and Products.   

Throughout 2018, you will see this common structure to the monthly blogs I post in the Conference Room Series.  We hope that you will start to notice the breakdown of People, Partners, Products, and Principle.  This should provide you with a behind-the-scenes snapshot of what we are all about at Alchemy-Spetec.  So, getting back to the question of what is the correct working hours principle?

• Find the right people. Only bring on professional adults who respect themselves and the quality of the work they produce.  And appreciate them for it. 
• Partner with like-minded companies and people up and down your vertical. Partner people are just as important as your own co-workers.  (See #1 above.)
• Know what your products do and don’t do. An experienced team with conviction of what their products do, and more importantly, what their products don’t, advances your brand with much greater strides than what over-promising ever will. 
• When #1, #2, and #3 are done correctly, work ethic Principles take care of themselves. You see, it all goes back to people.  Branson and Musk are great visionaries who create great Products, enter into the right Partnerships, and surround themselves with the best People.  Those are the Principles.  Don’t blame your business success or failure on work hours. (See #1 above.)

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is” – Scott Cook

Most of us have a product line. And all of us at least have an offering.  Unless we’re in the small percentage of companies that are offering uniquely differentiated proprietary products, we also all have similar competing products.  The key word here is Product.  Just because we have competing products, does not mean that we all have similar competitors.  What’s the difference?  And why am I seemingly commoditizing all of our offerings?  Let me explain…

So much more of our inherent value as sales organizations is not in knowing what products we offer, but in knowing what the products we offer do.   Sticking to my own wheelhouse of construction chemicals, the examples of a technical rep making or breaking themselves due to technical expertise are countless.  We all know, too well, the overheard conversation of a product recommendation over-promising on functionality and/or project scope.  The over zealous sales rep quick to state, “it should work in that application.”  This is the sound of a disappointed client, upset customer, stressed rep, tarnished brand confidence, and ruined future relationship flushing down a toilet.  And all of this could be avoided with a truthful statement such as, “I don’t know”, or “I’m not confident recommending this product for this application.” 

When I started my recently new position, I jumped on a conference call with a new customer with great potential.  In this call, we discussed a specific application, and a high-ranking member of our team responded, “I wouldn’t recommend that yet, we still have a lot of testing to do.”  This was music to my ears.  I automatically knew that I was in the right place.  I’m quite confident that this sincerity only leads to more confidence from our customers, which fosters a better relationship.  And whether you know it or not, often times the end-user on the other line is just as knowledgeable on application.  They often times know the right answer, but want to see if you do too.  You’ll always get second and third chances to guess right.  But you typically never get a second chance to guess wrong.  

Be confident in your products, and what they can do.  But I genuinely believe that amateur technical support ends with what products can do, and true technical expertise starts with knowing what they can’t.  Support your products and service with conviction in both. 

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

“Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning” – Bill Gates

It doesn’t require a merger or acquisition to create a 1+1=3 partnership.  It requires two companies, through open communication, identifying alignment of supply and demand services rendered and required.  Seems simple enough, right?  Absolutely not. 

Whether we admit to this or not, every business fulfills their agenda first.  We have to.  We have to turn our own lights on before we worry about who else has turned on theirs.  But, how far does this culture trickle down?  What messages are being sent to sales and marketing teams?  After all, the message sent to the sales team is the market-facing message with which our brands enter the arena.  Sure, marketing campaigns paint a picture, but what is the dynamic when you sit down with a representative and share dialogue?  Next time you’re on a sales meeting call, listen and compare how many times WE or US is used compared to THEM or THEY. This alone will be a very indicative sign of company culture and how it pertains to our view of our own partnerships. 

Mattew Dixon, author of The Challenger Sale, profoundly suggests “what sets the best suppliers apart is not the quality of their products, but the value of their insight—new ideas to help customers either make money or save money in ways they didn’t even know were possible.”    We are all suppliers.  In some way or another, we supply our products to service an industry need.  How valuable is your insight?

Invite yourself to your client’s next sales meeting to understand THEIR needs.  Report back to your sales manager only what THEY are trying to achieve.  What is the best-selling line for your distributor?  How can you compliment THEIR efforts selling to THOSE customers? What are THEIR sales goals in 2018?  How can you help THEM achieve that goal?  What is the most profitable service your contractor performs?  How can you supplement THAT service?  How can you improve THEIR sales and marketing targets for this service?

I’ve always believed that money is a by-product of being good at something, and if you think making money is the industry you’re in, you have a far less chance of ever being industry-leading.  And the industry-leader there, Jeff Bezos, still did it by offering partners and customers industry-changing service.  Firstly, be the best at servicing your partners needs, and your company’s bottom line will fall into place. 

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

Happy New Year from Alchemy-Spetec.

Over the next twelve months, I will be producing a monthly four-part blog, entitled Conference Room.  Producing content for forty-eight original blogs is quite an ambitious objective, but we all know not much gets achieved without setting lofty goals, and working towards them with diligence.  Our Conference Room blog will run concurrently with two other series focused on the Geotechnical and Waterproofing construction industry segments.  Through these blogs, we aim to provide our audience with an insight into not only the Alchemy-Spetec product line, but also the broader general industries as well as a behind-the-scenes snapshot of how we operate as an organization and how we prioritize our efforts.  We welcome questions, comments, and criticisms throughout, and look forward to finding ways to improve through this dialogue.  We hope you enjoy our blogs!

 “Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy” – Jack Welch

You read it in every business culture book, and you hear it in every management meeting.  Not only are people the most important dynamic to your business, good ones are extremely difficult to find.  We all realize that nothing in the business goes well when good people aren’t putting in their well-respected efforts day in and day out.  While this is certainly true inside each business, it is perhaps even more true outside of your business. 

The same phenomenon occurs when we don’t have the right people as partners anywhere along our respective verticals, or anywhere in our lives for that matter.  Do your suppliers share the same pillar principles?  Are you aligned with your distribution network’s goals?  As a supplier, do you share the same confidence in your product as the contractor has in their own skill and craftsmanship?  If the answer to any of these are ‘no’, then you’re not aligning with the right people.  In the often-quoted Best-Selling Book Good To Great, Jim Collins emphasizes the importance of first and foremost focusing on having the right people on the bus.  Why should this be any different for all of those people that make your brand uniquely yours?  Commitment to, and appreciation for finding the right people should be all of our #1 objectives. 

Tis the season for reflection and new beginnings.  Although you can’t throw someone off the bus who is sitting around your holiday dinner table, take some time to appreciate those around you who are the right people in your business and in your life.  And as we begin the new year, critically and reflectively consider if you’re performing as the right person on each bus you ride.  Next stop on this bus is Part 2 of 4; Partners. Be sure to stay tuned!  

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?