Every industry has people who made a difference, who
nudged the industry, altering the course, and changing things for those who
follow. Often, those who benefit from
the difference makers are unaware of their contributions. At the Service Roundtable we assembled a list
of 25 difference makers in plumbing and HVAC.
Two parts of this list were previously published, the not the final
group. Here, the entire list is
included. You may not like our
list. You may not like everyone on our
list. If so, tell me who else you would
include.
Ron Smith
The biggest difference maker in the HVAC industry is Ron
Smith. Period. Ron literally created the residential service
agreement. He was the first contractor
to bring a national focus on the residential service and replacement side of
the business. He hired the first retail
salesperson in the industry. He was one
of the first contractors in his region to integrate his company. He was the first to hire women
technicians. He started the Service
America franchise system, which was HVAC’s first franchise and first independent
contractor group. He taught more
contractors about marketing with his Dominant Market Share program than anyone
in the industry. He was COO of Service
Experts, transitioning it through the acquisition by Lennox. He brought the HVAC industry Tom McCart,
Charlie Greer, Ruth King, Al Roach, and others.
John Young worked for him. He’s
in the Contracting Business Hall of Fame and is a Service Roundtable Servant
Leader.
Frank Blau
Ron’s peer on the plumbing side is Frank Blau. Frank taught thousands of plumbing
contractors how to make a profit. He
beat the difference between mark-up and margin into the heads of tradesman who
didn’t know business. He created the
first flat rate system in the trades and was the first to utilize hand-held
digital pricing tools (i.e., the old Sharp Wizard, which has less computing
power than today’s low end digital camera).
He helped contractors understand their numbers and built up their esteem
so they understood their worth to society and were able to charge what they
were truly worth. Frank was also the
first guy to recognize the potential in the yellow pages, taking out full page
ads before they cost an arm and a leg.
In many ways, we have Frank to thank for the whole yellow pages
explosion in the trades (gee, thanks Frank).
Frank showed us how to turn a union shop into a profit machine and how
to win the loyalty of employees to the company over the union. Frank was also a co-founder of Contractors
2000, which later became Nexstar. He is
a Service Roundtable Servant Leader.
Dan Holohan
If you’re work in the hydonics market, you are familiar with
Dan Holohan. Dan is the hydronics rock
star. He has a cult like following
that’s reminiscent of Steve Jobs, Apple, and Harley all rolled into one. Dan is the focal point for this segment of the
industry, giving it a voice, and even a sense of identity. The “dead men” imagery Dan created after
reading old steam heating engineering books (written by “dead men”), gives the
hydronics practitioners a bad boy flavor, hydronics contractors have adopted. Dan brought this about, largely by
writing. Starting with The Lost Art of
Steam Heating, Dan has produced a steady stream of excellent and highly
influential books and columns.
Doc Rusk
One of the original industry evangelists for business
professionalism was Doc Rusk. Doc wrote
numerous columns and spoke frequently, helping to mold an entire generation of
contracting professionals from technicians-acting-as-owners.
George Brazil
One of the best known contractor brands in plumbing is
George Brazil. George revolutionized the
plumbing industry by creating a multi-location operation that spanned the west
coast and ventured inland. George
plastered the side of his large panel vans with an image of the All-American
plumber, dressed in all-white. He made a
science out of studying the yellow pages in the highly competitive California
market to position and promote his company.
George and Frank Blau co-founded Contractors 2000, which became NexStar.
Jim McDermott
When Jim McDermott took over Contracting Business
Magazine, the trade press was technical.
Jim added a business focus to Contracting Business, which added one to
the industry. More significant was the
work Jim performed behind the scenes. He
took an “industry first” approach and encouraging contractors, distributors,
and manufacturers to work together for the good of the industry. More recently, Jim helped with the launch of
HVACR Business Magazine.
Samuel Oscar Blanc
Sam Blanc created the drain cleaning industry. He invented the first power auger and sold
the machines during the Great Depression for $250 each. Before Blanc, drains were cleared by digging
up the pipes. His company, Roto-Rooter,
became the trades first franchise operation and first contractor group.
Charlie Greer
Most people know Charlie Greer for his sales training, Tec
Daddy DVD training program, and Slacker’s Guide. Charlie has had more influence in the
industry than most realize. Charlie
helped form the Contractor Success Group, the service trade’s first business
alliance and precursor to Service Experts and International Service
Leadership. Charlie recruited the
majority of CSG’s initial members.
Later, Charlie helped kick-start the consolidation movement when he was
approached by investors at a PHCC show about the consolidation concept. Charlie connected the investor group with the
contractors who became the foundation group for American Residential Service,
the first consolidator for the service trades.
Charlie is a Service Roundtable Servant Leader and the first recipient
of the Tom McCart Consultant of the Year Award.
Dominick Guarino
While Dominick Guarino was Editor-in-Chief at Contracting
Business, he helped create HVAC Comfortech, the HVAC industry’s premier
residential/light commercial conference and trade show (Comfortech is joined by
PlumbTech and HydronicsTech this year to become Mechanical Systems Week). Later, Dom was president of Residential
Excellence Alliance, the leading alternative group for contractors seeking to
remain independent during consolidation.
When Dominick founded the National Comfort Institute, he became the
industry’s leading evangelist for taking a holistic comfort “system” approach,
rather than focusing on boxes. It’s hard
to imagine now, but 15 years ago, few contractors paid attention to the duct
system or even knew how to measure static pressure.
Jackie Rainwater
Ron Smith may have created the residential service agreement,
but Jackie Rainwater was the biggest advocate of the service agreement, which
he only refers to as a maintenance agreement.
Jackie spread the message about the benefits to more contractors than
anyone else. He was an early innovator
in contractor pricing practices, flexing some prices up and others down to
maximize the bottom line. He is a member
of the Contracting Business Hall of Fame.
Wallace Lee
Wallace Lee virtually created the design/build approach to
commercial contracting. His business
innovations allowed commercial contractors to make a profit on commercial new
construction, not by wielding the sharpest pencil, but by delivering a creative
value proposition. Wallace was a
National Chairman of ACCA and member of the Contracting Business Hall of Fame.
Jeff Forker
The late Jeff Forker was the most influential person in
the HVAC industry. Although he was
Publisher of Contracting Business Magazine, Jeff’s influence exceeded his
positional authority. He brought the
industry together in a way that no one can or does today. He brought conflicting parties from across
the channel together and used the force of his personality to resolve problem
and bring about consensus. An example
is NATE. Initially, ACCA and RSES both
had their own certification program. It
was the direct result of Forker’s influence that both associations gave up
their programs and backed NATE. Without
Forker, NATE probably would not have survived.
Jeff was a Service Roundtable Servant Leader.
Jim Abrams
A Missouri contractor, Jim Abrams changed the industry in
numerous ways. He was the founder of the
Contractor Success Group, which was the first independent business alliance and
helped prompt Frank Blau and George Brazil’s creation of Contractors 2000. Abrams took a core group of CSG contractors
and entered the consolidation movement with Service Experts, before eventually
selling his ownership. Later, he formed
VenVest, which formed AirTime 500, Plumbing Success International, and similar
groups in electric and roofing. From PSI
contractors, the Ben Franklin plumbing franchise was formed. From AirTime, the One Hour Air franchise was
created. The BuyMax buying group was
created. Eventually, Abrams sold
AirTime, PSI, Ben Franklin, One Hour, and BuyMax to Direct Energy, giving the
British utility the largest utility presence in the contracting world.
Brendan Reid
Brendan Reid brought building science into the HVAC
industry with Retrotec and the Comfort Institute. Before Brendan, contractors gave some
thought, but little else to the building envelope, which was the sole province
of the building scientists. Brendan
helped contractors see the house as a system and was ahead of the curve on
building energy and performance contracting.
Jim Kimmons
Jim Kimmons may not have been the first to bring flat
rate to the HVAC industry (that goes to Frank Blau), but he made it
mainstream. He wrote an article about
flat rate for Contracting Business Magazine that caused the phone to ring so
much he quit his day job and became a full time flat rate publisher. Later, he joined Callahan Roach and we know
the current evolution of this original system by the Callahan Roach Products
& Publications name today. Because
of Kimmons’ efforts, tens of thousands of contractors were able to turn a
corner and start becoming retail contractors.
Few people have done as much as Jim to generate wealth in the HVAC
industry.
Jim Norris
At one point in time, Jim Norris personally knew more
contractors in the HVAC industry than anyone else. He saved ACCA (the first time it was saved),
returning it to fiscal soundness and raised the organization’s profile within
the industry and on Capitol Hill. Norris
raised significant funds for ACCA’s PAC and used the funds to strategically influence
legislation, which he considered one of the organization’s most important
roles. It’s not surprising that contractor
influence in Washington reached its pinnacle under Norris. Upon leaving ACCA, Norris took the helm at
GroupMAC, one of the early consolidators.
When he retired from GroupMAC, he joined Excellence Alliance, an
alliance formed to give contractors an alternative to selling to a
consolidator, before retiring. No one
who knew him, ever doubted Norris’ commitment to contractors.
John Keeler
One of the early proponents of best practices and operational
excellence, John Keeler was one of the industry’s first business and management
trainers. In a day before the Internet
and organizations like the Service Roundtable, thousands of contractors
benefitted from Keeler’s manuals and collections of contractor collateral,
called “Keeler’s Unique Methods.”
Tom McCart
The first person to sell $1 million in residential retail
sales was Tom McCart. When Tom did it,
the average system cost a fraction of today’s prices. Moreover, Tom sold $1 million in a one season
market where he had to generate many of his own leads. Tom was introduced to the industry by Ron
Smith and became a top industry sales trainer after Ron sold Modern Air and
launched Service America. Tom is a
Service Roundtable Servant Leader and member of the Contracting Business Hall
of Fame.
Vicki La Plant
In the early 80s, Lennox Industries started a
revolutionary new program to partner with their dealers and select key dealers
for special training. The “Dealer
Marketing Advisor” program was created by Vicki La Plant. It not only improved the performance of
hundreds of contractors, but brought dozens of top contractors to the
industry. After leaving Lennox, La Plant
continued to help contractors as a consultant and trainer. She was instrumental in the formation of the
Joseph Groh Foundation, which helps people in the trade who suffer life
altering events. Vicki and her husband,
John are each Service Roundtable Servant Leaders.
Harold Goodman
One of the most visionary contractors in the history of
the HVAC industry was Harold Goodman.
Goodman specialized in tract home and apartment equipment installations
in the robust Houston market. Competing
in this price competitive market, he recognized the potential for no-frills
products that came without incentive trips, advertising programs, or anything
else that added to costs. Goodman
started manufacturing flex duct and registers, then bought Janitrol, relocating
the tooling to Houston. When Goodman
couldn’t find distribution, he built his own.
Eventually, the Goodman brand became HVAC’s top selling line of unitary
equipment.
John Young
Another Ron Smith employee was marketing savant, John
Young. Young was Ron’s sales manager at
Modern Air. He later collaborated with
Jim Abrams to found the Contractor Success Group, which spawned Service Experts
and was eventually sold to Lennox. Young
and Abrams got together again to form AirTime 500, Clean Indoor Air, Plumbing
Success International, and other companies under the Clockworks umbrella that
were sold to Direct Energy. Greater than
his role in forming contractor alliances, Young is best known for his
three-page winter replacement direct mail letter. This letter, more than any other, persuaded a
generation of contractors about the effectiveness of direct mail.
Maurice Maio
Another contractor known for marketing, but on the plumbing
side, is Maurice Maio. Maio returned to
San Diego from college to take over the family plumbing business. While it was a stretch to call the two-truck
operation a business, Maio would soon make it one, eventually becoming one of
the nation’s largest residential service contractors before selling to a
consolidator. A student of the industry,
Maio adopted many of the practices developed by George Brazil, Frank Blau, and
Mike Diamond and refined them. He
packaged his systems as Maio Marketing Systems and began training contractors
from across the country on ways to market their companies. He created his own flat rate system, which he
offered to the industry. Maio
consistently raised the marketing bar for plumbing contractors.
Preston Bond
At Honeywell, Preston Bond created a commercial full coverage
maintenance agreement and sales process, transforming commercial service
work. He was instrumental in the
creation of the LINC franchise system, HVAC’s oldest continually operating franchise
system. Bond is a member of the
Contracting Business Hall of Fame.
Earl King
Another individual to impact commercial service was Earl King
who created the United Service Alliance (USA), the first business alliance for
commercial contractors. USA was a national force until sold to
GroupMAC. Throughout his career, King
has always been willing to help contractors create and offer commercial
maintenance programs. He continues to be
a featured columnist in the trade magazines and is a member of the Contracting
Business Hall of Fame.
Tom Mutz
A financial genius, Tom Mutz created a contracting empire
under the Unique Indoor Comfort brand.
Mutz would legally partner with contractors, taking a financial stake in
their businesses in return for helping them become more successful. He was one of the first contractors to
successful execute a multi-market strategy under common branding. Mutz showed how contractors could band
together to achieve economies of scale and help each other with financial
benchmarking.
(c) 2013 Matt Michel
