Nov 16 2007 1:20PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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We've just finished selecting this year's Innovators for our January issue. (See last year's here.) We'll be announcing them shortly, as well as taking your entries for next year. What amazed me as entries came in throughout the year was some of the odd things remodelers think are "innovative." As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

• Multiple entries for companies that said they didn't have Web sites. Uh, sorry ... not having a Web site might make you a lot of things, but innovative isn't one of them.
• Having employees that don't smell, comb their hair and don't track mud into a client's home. That's great and all, but if that passes for innovative in your market, wow, I want to start a remodeling firm there.
• Making accurate measurements. Again, isn't this a base level for which we should all be aiming?
• Giving his employees Sundays off. Are there that many firms out there working seven days a week on a regular basis? Certainly not any I know.

I'm not singling these things out to be a jerk (well, OK, that's not the only reason), but to make the point that it just shows how far the industry has to go to reach what I would consider a basic level of professionalism. I often find myself defending remodelers to people outside the industry, saying its not as bad as the consumer media makes it out to be. I say that the problems are caused by just a few bad eggs; that it's mostly good companies. Maybe I'm the one who's wrong. Or are these remodelers delusional? Thoughts?