AEC Forensics
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I’ve been quiet on the blogging and social media front recently as I have been busy with purchasing a condo, getting financing in the post-financial crisis world, and then packing, moving, settling in — all during a killer rash of hot weather. This…
Aug 312010
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I’ve brought up the subject of personal branding before, but I want to touch on it in a context most people don’t often consider.
Usually you hear terms like personal branding in conjunction with entrepreneurship. Most business owners were employees once. And often these business leaders were actually planning and scheming their new business under the guise of a loyal employee at their former job. In such cases, personal branding is essential for surviving the transition from wage-earner to business leader. But what about the truly loyal employee who has no interest in leaving their firm?
The answer to why this is important, is simple but often misunderstood: in today’s world, strong company branding is closely tied to the personalities behind the brand. Many companies see this as a liability not an asset, although the reverse is true. Let’s look at some examples:
- Apple & Steve Jobs: Actually Apple’s brand owes its DNA to not just one Steve, but two – Jobs and Wozniak. Woz is the indisputable juggernaut behind the ubiquity of personal computers. The guy is a true genius that could literally think in Assembly language – the language that machines actually operated under. But in all likelihood, if Woz had been alone in developing the original Apple computer, the company we know today would never have existed. Steve Jobs has completely transformed our perception of what a CEO is and does over the last quarter century. Sure he flies around in a fancy jet and goes to lots of expensive meals with captains of industry. But he also is involved (some would argue too involved) in even the most mundane of details of developing the company’s products and even more importantly, promoting them. So powerful is Jobs’ personal brand that critics refer to his public presence as a reality distortion field where one’s life is seemingly inadequate without Apple’s latest piece of technology. Some question what future Apple has without Jobs’ inevitable departure. Personal branding obviously has its place at the top of the company, what about farther down?
- The Maytag Repairman: This was a very long-lasting marketing campaign that demonstrates employee personal branding in an unexpected manner. The guy was rarely busy, seemed to show no initiative whatsoever, but in doing so, perfectly illustrated the company’s message: our products are so dependable, repair people are almost unnecessary. But that’s just a character in an ad spot. What about a personal brand that delivers real value to the company’s brand?
- Matt Cutts & Google: Matt Cutts is a very important person in today’s internet. In his role at Google, he is in charge of the Webspam team. To some, he is a saint for providing an important quality control component to Google’s search results. To others, he is a obstruction to profit for internet marketers. Beyond that, he has created a very powerful personal brand that benefits Google immensely. He exemplifies that Google’s search results are for humans, by humans.
How does one pursue the duality of building a personal brand and serving as a loyal employee? Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media, tackled this very subject a couple months ago at bruceclay.com.
This is a subject I’ll be coming back to in the future, so stay tuned.
- Image via Wikipedia
Although most people associate the word forensics with legal issues, usually criminal proceedings, the word actually has a broader meaning. In my opinion, the role of forensics in the AEC (architecture, engineering and construction) industry is to apply scholarly and/or scientific methodology and norms to understanding the underlying facts regarding the built environment. (See AECForensics: About.) During on-site inspections, we are looking at multiple conditions in exacting detail, collecting and analyzing tremendous amounts of data, and trying to distill the observations into something meaningful.
Typically this means taking a lot of pictures and writing down lots of notes, filling in checklists, drawing on and annotating plans, details, etc. I personally have around 10 pieces of paper I’m working off of at a a single unit during visual inspections. Constant flipping back and forth through several pages, reviewing documents, making notes – it is easy to become distracted from the matter at hand: inspecting!
As predicted, inspectors in the AEC Forensics industry are adopting the iPad for use in the field. While several applications have been developed for the AEC industry, including Vela’s suite of applications, this is the first I’ve heard of a company that provides forensic services adopting the technology. The company is D 7 Consulting Inc. and they were recently profiled by CIO Magazine offering lessons learned from their transition:
Nearly a dozen iPads have been put to work on rooftops and in basements at dirty construction sites, from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Joseph Daniels, president of D7 Consulting, a quality-assurance consulting firm, deployed them only a couple of weeks ago—and has already learned a lot.D7 Consulting wanted to change the way its field employees made out reports, discarding pen and paper for electronic data entry that taps into a cloud service. And so D7 Consulting entered and won a promotional contest put on by Box.net, a hosted content management services provider, for free 3G iPads and service.
Earlier this summer, D7 Consulting employees tore the wrappings from the shiny iPads, signaling the beginning of a two-phase rollout. D7 Consulting is now in the middle of the process, with half of the 20 iPads in the field today and the other half set to go there soon.
As part of the promotion with Box.net, the company that provided the iPads and facilitated remote access to cloud-based file storage, Snippies shot a video outlining the process. Inspectors, welcome to the future:
For more information and future updates, visit D 7 Consulting’s Blog (written by CEO Joseph Daniels), or follow them on Twitter (@d7consulting).
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- Found Footage: Box.net’s iPad kickoff at D7 Consulting (tuaw.com)
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- Announcement: AECForensics.com is the source for Architectural, Engineering and Construction News (blhill.net)
 Announcement: AECForensics.com is the source for Architectural, Engineering and Construction NewsBelow is a quote from the announcement at AECForensics.com: After a lot of work behind the scenes, I’m proud to announce that AEC Forensics is now fully operational. I have scoured the internet and continue to do so daily, selecting and curating the content that appears here. Since no other website has risen to the challenge of compiling news about our industry (construction defect litigation, construction law, bad faith, green forensics, etc.), I have thrown my hat in the ring. Those of you that know me personally are aware that I am a full time employee and shareholder of KPA Associates, Inc., a San Diego-based architectural firm that provides expert witness testimony in construction defect matters, in addition to ADA compliance and residential/commercial/institutional design services. In other words, this website is an avocation for me and something I pursue solely because of my passion for this industry. Admittedly not everything [Continue Reading...] |
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 BoingBoing’s Mark Frauenfelder Discusses Doing It YourselfImage via Wikipedia Mark Frauenfelder is a man of many talents: Founded bOING bOING, a zine in 1988 with partner/wife, Carla Sinclair bOING bOING beget BoingBoing.net in 1995 as a basic website which became a weblog in 2000 Was an editor at Wired in the 90s Has published several books Is editor-in-chief of MAKE Magazine And as part of the research for his latest book, Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World, Frauenfelder can add a few more: cigar box luthier, chicken coop constructor, and espresso machine modder. Here is an interview with Reason.TV to discuss the new book and the relevance of doing-it-yourself in a world of point-and-click: |
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 Tell Your Prospects How You Save Them Money | B.I.R. Building RelationshipsImage via Wikipedia This is an excellent post from Building Industry Relationships that highlights another aspect of presenting value when courting clients. For service industries, value is the main offering that successful companies provide. Often the term is used in reference to perceived value, or “the relationship between the consumer’s perceived benefits in relation to the perceived costs of receiving these benefits.” In this case, Karen Davis discusses the more conventional meaning of value – saving money. At a time when people are pinching pennies, let them know how you your services can save them money in the long run. Their time is money. Their research effort is money. Their mistakes – money. Show your prospect the financial benefit of choosing you. – The financial benefit of choosing you over your competition, whether you’re in a job interview or trying to sign a contract. – The financial benefit spending a [Continue Reading...] |
