Welding & Gases Today Editor’s Blog 
  

Long-time readers of the Welding & Gases Today blog know that I like to switch things up from time to time with a video post. This is one of those times. If you haven’t already seen the headline on GAWDAwiki, last week there was a potentially serious hydrogen-related explosion in Rochester, NY. Two tanks at a hydrogen filling station exploded, sending flames billowing into the air.

It wasn’t pretty, but the county claims it could have been worse. Apparently, safety measures on the Praxair hydrogen tanks and trailers prevented a bigger explosion from taking place. Praxair transported the damaged tanks to its Niagra Falls, NY, facility. There the company will investigate the cause of the disaster.

Below is a video of the explosion. Stay tuned to GAWDAwiki for more details as they become available.

In what are still challenging economic times, it seems like there’s not always a lot of good news to report. Flip on cable news and you’ll hear talk of double-dips and job losses, pick up a newspaper and its more of the same. It’s no wonder consumer confidence is down when the average American is bombarded with bad news on a daily basis.

Well, today on the Welding & Gases Today Editor’s Blog, we’re breaking the trend. I’ve got some good news to report. As seen today on GAWDAwiki, a recent study should give industrial gas distributors a reason to celebrate. Freedonia Group Inc’s new report “World Industrial Gases” was released yesterday and it states that world deman for industrial gases will increase at a rate of eight percent annually to $52 billion in 2014.

The study also claims that  the volumetric consumption of industrial gases will expand five percent per year, reaching 530 billion cubic meters over the same period of time. Much of the growth is expected to come from overseas, with India and China leading the way.

As far as how the growth will be broken up among consuming categories, the chemical  processing and petrolemum refining industry is expected to lead the way—accounting for 40 percent of all consumption. Following behind will be the metal production, fabrication, electronics and health care industries.

Those are promising statistics indeed. For more details, check out this link. Also, I would love to hear what you think, leave a comment and let me know!

As the Welding & Gases Today staff is busy putting the finishing touches on the fourth quarter issue of the magazine—which will focus on training, I wanted to take this opportunity to make remind you to check out one of our most interesting third quarter WGT articles . The article, called “Same Thing—A New Way,” is all about innovation. It features insight from some of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association’s most prominent distributor principals. They’re candidly sharing their unique strategies for innovating in a challenging economy.

The article’s message is that when you hear the word innovation, the first thing that probably pops into your head is the latest technology or the newest invention. However, for many distributors in the gases and welding industry, the recipe for success isn’t in the newest gadget or the latest technological advancement. Innovation is not necessarily about the money you sink into research and development, it’s about the people you have, how you lead, and how much you get it.”

In the article, we talk to 12 distributors who “get it.”  They share some of their innovative ideas for growing their businesses as the economy struggles upward. They remind readers that innovation is not about reinventing the wheel. Innovation is not a big leap from where you currently stand. Innovation does not come from technologies, systems, or research and development. It comes from finding ways to add value to your customers. It’s about finding new ways to do the same things you already are doing.

To find out what it is that they’re doing,  read the article here.

After you finish, I want to hear your ideas? What can our industry do differently to help itself run better?

If there is one thing that I’m learning as I dig deeper and deeper into the gases and welding industry, it’s that there is an incredible amount of rules, regulation and litigation surrounding the business. From the DOT and FMCSA to the PHMSA and welding fume litigation, there are copious roadblocks that gases and welding equipment distributors must navigate. I can only imagine the headaches that can produce!

Fortunately for GAWDA members, they’re part of an association that can help them navigate through the maze of red tape. The association contracts consultants in a variety of areas including government affairs, medical gas issues, DOT, security and human resources. For a full directory of consultants, visit this page.

Also, every quarter the association’s magazine, Welding & Gases Today, features articles from the consultants on the most recent and relevant information regarding topics such as DOT issues, security, FDA issues, medical gases, government affairs, human resources, lean operations and OSHA. I suggest visiting the archive of articles located here. Each of these articles was written with one goal in mind—helping the distributor avoid potentially costly situations. All you need to do is find one actionable item, and it will be more than worth your time.
If you do stumble across something new, or something you would like to see covered further, please let me know. I would love to write more about it. I can be reached at 315-445-2347 or via e-mail dan@WeldingAndGasesToday.org

In this brave new digital world, we’re all aware of the risks that are out there. We know about identity theft, password hacking and phishing scams that can make ourselves vulnerable and even allow others access to our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs. So we’ve all taken steps to protect our identities, right? You would think so, but in many instances that’s not the case.

For instance, Imperva recently put out a study “Consumer Password Worst Practices.” It revealed some shocking statistics about just how basic many people’s passwords have become.

Here are some of the study’s key findings:

• About 30 percent of users chose passwords whose length is equal or below six characters
• Almost 60 percent of users chose passwords from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters
• Nearly 50 percent of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or other trivial passwords.

The top 10 most commonly used passwords were:

1.) 123456
2. )12345
3.) 123456789
4.) Password
5.) iloveyou
6.) princess
7.) rockyou
8.) 1234567
9.) 12345678
10.) abc123

If you use any of these passwords, run and change your password. It’s just not worth the risk. So what should you change it to? That’s a fantastic question, the study offered a few suggestions.

• Use at least 8 characters
• Use a mix of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and special characters
• It should not be a name, a slang word, or any dictionary word. Also—don’t use your name or part of your e-mail address.

It’s a dangerous world out there on the Web. You can’t prevent everything, but having a good password is an easy way to improve your odds.

As an Editor for a niche industry, one of the things I like to do is keep my eye on what the mainstream business world is talking about. I find it is a great way to stay informed and also to cultivate ideas for gases and welding. Well today I stumbled upon an article that I found very interesting.

What CEOs Really Want is the name of the article and Frank Kern wrote it for BusinessWeek. It touches on the one quality that American CEOs most commonly identified as important in a prospective job candidate. Surprisingly, it wasn’t work ethic, knowledge, assertiveness or people skills. It was creativity.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, which can be found here.

“There is compelling new evidence that CEOs’ priorities in this area are changing in important ways. According to a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value (NYSE: IBM – News), CEOs identify “creativity” as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.

Coming out of the worst economic downturn in their professional lifetimes, when managerial discipline and rigor ruled the day, this indicates a remarkable shift in attitude. It is consistent with the study’s other major finding: Global complexity is the foremost issue confronting these CEOs and their enterprises. The chief executives see a large gap between the level of complexity coming at them and their confidence that their enterprises are equipped to deal with it.”

So does that carry over to gases and welding? I would say it does. Not only do customers demand new, creative solutions, but you have to be creative to find new customers as well. What do all of you think? How important is creativity in your industry?

Let me know

I’m going to do something a little different today for the Welding and Gases Today blog. I’m going to offer TV programming advice. While that’s not something I’ll typically do—I like to leave the TV criticism to the experts—I think you will understand why I made an exception.

 Tomorrow night on TLC, American Chopper has its season premiere, and it features a strong tie to GAWDA. For the uninitiated, American Chopper is a reality show that chronicles the exploits of Paul Teutel and his Orange County Choppers motorcycle fabrication shop. Of course, in a motorcycle fabrication shop, you can guess that lots of welding takes place—and that’s absolutely the case. However, what adds to the intrigue for GAWDA members is that this year, member company ESAB will be supplying all of the equipment.

The company agreed to supply a full line of welding equipment and filler metals for the show. In exchange, Teutul has fabricated a custom ESAB-inspired chopper. The episode itself will focus in part on the fabrication of that ESAB bike. In fact, it closes with the delivery of the bike, which took place June 21 at Paulus Hook Pier in New Jersey in front of the 9/11 memorial. Nearby, the new Freedom Tower is under construction, with ESAB filler metals being used extensively.

To mark the occasion, the company is hosting a premier party at its headquarters in Florence, South Carolina. So be sure to tune in to TLC tomorrow night and check out your industry in action!

It’s been a busy week at the offices of the GAWDA publications. We’ve been working hard finalizing the text for the 4^th quarter issue of Welding & Gases Today. It’s an information-packed issue and I think you’re really going to enjoy what we’ve put together for you.

The main theme of the issue is “Training for Dollars.” That means we’ll be featuring a variety of articles that will show you how training can make the cash register sing. One such article is a piece we’re featuring what are called “Training Success Stories.” These are mini case studies that offer up an example of a time when a distributor and manufacturer came together to perform some sort of training exercise. Then, because of that training, the distributor was able to make a sale.

One of the case studies featured distributor Oxarc and its supplier partner Osborn Inc. The two partnered up for a ‘customer appreciation’ day event that was held at Oxarc’s headquarters. Overall, more than 100 customers received training from Osborn, and according to Oxarc Regional Sales Manager Rick Henson, it was a big help. “It’s a customer appreciation day, but of course we’re trying to build sales at the same time,” he explains. “Having representatives from companies like Osborn on hand to demonstrate products really gives our customers a reason to show up and to buy products.”

To help encourage broad thinking, Oxarc allows its suppliers to sell their entire product line during the event, even SKUs that Oxarc doesn’t traditionally stock. “Oftentimes we’ll find demand for a product that we didn’t know existed. We generally take on several new product SKUs after an event like this,” says Henson.

This is just one of four examples we’ll be spotlighting. Be sure to head over to www.weldingandgasestoday.org on September 15 to check it out!

I don’t know how many of the readers of this blog are sports fans, but for those of you who are interested in NASCAR, I came across a story that should pique your interest. As reported by my colleague Devin O’Toole on GAWDAwiki, GAWDA member Ozarc received some significant screen time during a recent NASCAR Nationwide Series Event.

 The event, the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 was held July 17  was held at St. Louis’ Gateway International Raceway. The event was won by Carl Edwards, but GAWDA members should be more concerned with the guy who placed 24^th. Alex “Kid” Kennedy’s #23 Chevrolet featured an Ozarc logo over its rear quarter panel.

As it turned out, this placement was very beneficial for Ozarc, if not for Kennedy himself. During lap 19, Kennedy blew a tire, causing him to lose four laps. However, the troublesome tire happened to be located just below the Ozarc ad. This meant that the logo was featured prominently on ESPN2’s  live race broadcast—including a close-up iso shot.

After the race, the quarter panel was removed and given to Ozarc Senior Consultant and NASCAR mega-fan Gary Garner. Congrats Gary and congrats Ozarc!

How about the rest of you? Has your company ever sponsored any sort of sporting event? If so, leave a comment and let me know. I would love to write about it.

This year GAWDA President Jenny McCall has been encouraging association members to “Get in the Game.” Well, the Welding & Gases Today staff has heard her call and we are responding. After a several-month hiatus while we laid out plans for the future of the magazine, we are bringing back the always-popular Editor’s Blog. The blog’s return serves as precursor to some major changes to the association media’s online presence that will be occurring over the next few months. I’ll be releasing more details as they become available, but suffice it to say that it’s going to be HUGE.

Now, I’ll get back to the blog. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Dan Vest and I’m one of the newest Editor of Welding & Gases Today. Some of you may remember me from my work for GAWDA Edge and the brief stint I did writing its blog.

Right now the plan for this blog is to feature news as well as opinions, observations, occasional insights and questions. I plan on updating this thing several times a week as I’m working on stories and talking to members, so be sure to check in often!

 I’ve been involved with the industry for a while now, but all of you are still the experts. That means there might be a time or two where I say something that doesn’t quite add up. That’s where you come in. If I say something ridiculous (and I will), let me know. If I’m ignoring a gas and or welding issue that deserves some attention, speak up. If you want to participate in the magazine or the blog, let me know.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it’s still going to take all of you participating to help this blog reach its full potential. So sit back, enjoy the blog, and if you’ve got anything to say, speak up!