Monday, September 29, 2008

VIDEO: IG certification at a glance

Do you know enough about insulating glass certification? According to some industry experts, you should make sure you do.

IG certification is becoming increasingly important in the industry. The National Fenestration Rating Council, Greenbelt, Md., is currently working to incorporate IG certification requirements into its program. And, the Insulating Glass Certification Council, Sackets Harbor, N.Y., and the Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance, Ottawa, Ontario, are nearing completion of a harmonized IGCC/IGMA certification program.

Watch the video below to see highlights of interviews with IG certification experts John Kent, administrative manager for the IGCC; Tracy Rogers, technical director for Edgetech I.G. Inc., Cambridge, Ohio; and Margaret Webb, IGMA executive director.

For even more information, visit the Edgetech I.G. booth, #1934, during GlassBuild America, where Webb, in addition to officials from NFRC and Energy Star, will be available to answer questions about IG certification throughout the show. Learn more.




—By Katy Devlin, commercial glass and metals editor, retail glass co-editor, Glass Magazine

Friday, September 19, 2008

Lessons from the Black Swan

If you're like me, the events on Wall Street this past week took your breath away.

Once I steadied myself, I tried to ponder its full ramifications in the context of the future business outlook.

We're like that. We seek meaning from today so as to better understand tomorrow. As business people, we're always looking for that extra edge to capitalize on market opportunities and reduce our risk.

Well, get this. It's a fruitless exercise. At least if you subscribe to the wisdom of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable," by Nassam Nicholas Taleb.

The bestseller’s main thesis is that accurate prediction is enormously difficult, rendering techniques used to manage risk flawed because none deals well with the "Black Swan" – a metaphor for high-impact, hard-to-predict, random events.

In many ways, this past week was a Black Swan event. A rare (we hope) confluence of negative developments that produced out-sized consequences. A perfect storm of things we once thought were impossible, but suddenly, shockingly, became all too real.

Taleb’s point is that we don’t plan for events we regard as rare and improbable. And yet, such events occur much more frequently than we dare think.

When a black swan catches us unaware, we simply may need to gulp and brace ourselves, as most of us did a week ago.

After all, most of us have come to believe there will never be another financial collapse like the one that led to the Great Depression. Ha! Still believe that?

Let’s just hope the events of the past week are as close as this generation ever gets to such a seminal event. Indeed, we can hope; but we’d be foolish to assume it won’t be worse next time. Black swans exist.

So, how can we apply the lessons of The Black Swan to our business?

· Adopt a more conservative investment strategy;

· Avoid placing big bets based on forecasts. How often do we hear of bellwether companies revising their earnings outlooks downward? It seems there’s more every week;

· Act like a Boy Scout, not a Pollyanna. Be prepared. The worst case scenario can, and often does, occur.

· Remember that a Black Swan event might change the rules of the game for your business, fundamentally altering your long-term strategy. Don't lull yourself into thinking that once you’ve weathered the storm, everything will soon revert to business as usual. For example, now that the government is so deeply invested in the banking, insurance and mortgage sectors, the markets have only just begun to gauge the long-term implications.

· Be alert to variances from your projected start and end points on a key project or business launch. Understand that others in your value chain, including suppliers and general contractors, are subject to variances of their own. Slower-paying receivables at one end of the chain can quickly cascade down the line, disrupting schedules and compromising your ability to meet your own deadlines.

· Make plans to attend GlassBuild America where the industry gathers Oct. 6-8 to network and buy and sell. Opportunities abound, now that the swan appears to have flown away. I promise!

By the way, if you're looking for a good read on the plane ride out to GlassBuild America, I recommend "The Black Swan." I’ve only scratched the surface of its powerful and provocative insights in this entry.

Looking for some normalcy amongst all the madness? Don't look toward Wrigley Field. The Cubs just might be headed to the World Series. Now there’s a black swan event if we ever saw one!


By David Walker, vice president, Association Services, National Glass Association

Monday, September 15, 2008

Ponderings on pretty panes in pre-Ike Dallas

I rode the same shuttle bus as Arthur Berkowitz and James Carroll of J.E. Berkowitz on my way to the Wyndham DFW Airport North Hotel last week. I flew into Dallas for the GANA Fall Conference Sept. 8-10. As the pre-Ike rain started pattering down and our bus picked up speed on the empty highway, we started chatting about ...what else? ... the state of the industry, latest projects and the hot products on the market. Berkowitz mentioned the Dulles International Airport project and the company’s latest product, decorative interlayers with SentryGlas Expressions from DuPont.

SentryGlas is a specific technology that uses an inkjet printer to print on to the PVB, Carroll said. The special ink is made by DuPont in conjunction with the makers of the printer. The surface of the SentryGlas PVB is ground differently than regular PVBs, he said. “If it’s too flat, the ink will run off. This PVB is specially prepared for ink adhesion; it allows the ink to stay where you put it.”

The technology allows you to take a picture and recreate it in a special software package. You can make the image larger or smaller. “You can do just about anything with this,” Carroll said. “We’re using Photoshop to maneuver the files.” You can put silk-screen patterns and put it in the PVB instead of the lami. You can pick any color you like. “The advantage is you can do this in different pieces and put them together to make one image,” Carroll said. “We’ve seen people looking into having their names printed on the building. It’s better to print on the interlayer than to silk-screen it on the outside of the glass.”

Berkowitz is a licensed dealer of the DuPont technology and is trying to market it as a Berkowitz/DuPont product. Other than Berkowitz, Pulp Studio in Los Angeles and Standard Bent in Butler, Pa., also are marketing SentryGlas in North America, Carroll said. “We’ve had it for about four months,” he said. “We have just now have begun to make samples and send them out. We’re working with a graphic designer as a contract employee. It’s very time consuming, depending upon how complicated the design is. We’re waiting for the dam to break.”

As the bus pulled into the hotel driveway, the rain drops were coming down big and fast. We jogged inside, and Berkowitz commented that there are no “standards” anymore in decorative glass. Architects want larger sizes and everything is customized, he said. True to the market trends, GANA began its decorative division in 2006. Read about a decorative presentation at the fall conference.

What are some of your hot products waiting to take off in the market? Drop me a line and tell me about projects using innovative and unusual glass.

By Sahely Mukerji, news editor/managing editor, Glass Magazine

Monday, September 8, 2008

‘Live large. Think big’

I am in the president’s home state, in the city of Dallas, whose new slogan is “Live large. Think big.” It’s my first time in this city, and true to its slogan, I noticed the “large” and the “big” in various shapes and forms as soon as I landed: big hair, big cowboy hats, and dare I say, big chutzpah! As I was calling the hotel from the airport for a shuttle, a guy—in a cowboy hat—appeared from nowhere and without any introduction said, “Hey, you wanna’ go watch football with me and grab a few wings?”

Uh, excuse me!

The Glass Association of North America is hosting its fall conference in this ninth largest city in the U.S. with an area of 343 square miles and a population of 1,213,825. Per my Web research, Dallas’ skyline features quite a few gleaming towers, several of which are more than 700 feet tall. Here are a few head-turners:

The Renaissance Tower on Elm Street is a 56-story office tower, 886 feet high. Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum designed it in 1974, and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill renovated it in 1986.

The Fountain Place on Ross Avenue is a 60-story green glass tower, 720 feet high. The I.M. Pei & Partners designed the building and its construction was completed in 1986. Resembling a large multifaceted prism, the building’s various slanted sides give it a different profile from all directions.

JPJ Architects designed the formerly Maxus Energy Tower, recently renamed KPMG Centre. The glass walls of the rectangular 34-story tower create an illusion and make it look like its toppling over. The illusion is in the glass walls that seem to be sloping inward from top to bottom but in reality are straight. KPMG Centre is linked by a skywalk network to the parking lot.

I.M. Pei & Partners designed the 49-story Energy Plaza skyscraper on Bryan Street. Sheathed in glass the building is based on a design using three triangles. The communications tower at the top of the building is modeled after Paris' Eiffel Tower.

The soaring Reunion Tower, part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex on Reunion Boulevard, is a column topped by a geodesic and glass dome complete with an observation tower, restaurant and lounge.

Plenty more such shiny stunners are in Dallas, including the all-glass high-end condo, Azure, which I won’t be able to admire in person given GANA’s packed agenda. I’m still tickled pink to be in Gee Dubya country, right in the middle of those folks who were chanting "Drill baby, drill" at the Republican convention last week, while an ex-mayor made fun of community organizers.

"Community organizer. Wha?" Live large, think big! Yeehaaw.

By Sahely Mukerji, news editor/managing editor, Glass Magazine

Read a report from Day One of the GANA Fall Conference.