I am passionate about the boiler business and the people who work in it. Our products are vital to providing steam for a variety of applications. They’re everywhere in countless installations in virtually every part of the world. You can say that we help make business move. Steam is in our blood. We live it each and every day. It’s a vast product category that most people don’t know about.
For years, boiler room experts were positioned at almost every plant. They were the gurus who were subject level experts on all things boilers and were viewed as indispensable. These influences are slowly exiting the boiler business through retirements and downsizing. This resident knowledge is slowly slipping away and not being passed down to the next generation of boiler professionals. Companies aren’t investing in talent and resources to work their boiler room operations. They’re asking boiler manufacturers to assume more of the servicing and maintenance of their boilers.
The boiler industry has been good to many people who have worked in it. It’s time that we give back and share our experience to infuse new enthusiasm for our industry with today’s young professionals. It is truly the responsibility of anyone in an executive level position to leave their industry in a better place for the next generation.
Convincing young engineers, sales, and manufacturing professionals to enter our business is paramount to future success. We’re competing with many other industries to attract these young minds. The benefit of working with what’s coming next with boiler products is vast and far reaching. We’re a mature industry that is enjoying a renaissance. It’s time for the next generation to be the impetus for driving the boiler business forward.
All of us need to take time and share our boiler knowledge. Encourage young professionals to step up and shape where the boiler business can be in the future. There is so much for them to learn. Help them see what is truly great about boilers. At the same time, they’ll teach us things or convince us to do things differently and perhaps better. Many people were directly influential in my career. It is incumbent upon us to do the same with the next set of leaders that are working at our companies today. I’m enthusiastic about what this means for the boiler business.
Paying it forward is important to me. It is one of the reasons why I’ve joined the Executive Board of Directors of the ABMA – the American Boiler Manufacturers Association – as Vice Chairman. As an association, we need to continually create more awareness about all that is great about all things boilers. I’m committed to seeing through an effort to ensure the future viability of this great business.