Traditions, trade shows and picnics
July 1, 2007 By Jay Johnston
Jim Murray stood back to soak in the view of hundreds of customers milling about the annual Ray Murray Open House at the Lee Mass corporate compound.
Read More Are you financially motivated?
July 1, 2007 By Carl Hughes
I pose this rhetorical question to examine some of the decisions we make in our propane companies that fly in the face of reaching for maximum financial performance.
Read More Summer’s most important priority
July 1, 2007 By Randy Doyle
Every business – regardless of size – needs to stop from its busy daily schedule in order to reflect on its performance and to plan for the future. It’s simply good business to periodically ask yourself, How are we doing? What can we do better? What are our goals?
Read More Defense costs provide safety incentives
June 1, 2007 By Jay Johnston
Beyond the standard insurance company costs of marketing, loss control and underwriting, we have liability defense costs.
Read More Cabinet heater concerns
June 1, 2007 By Patrick Hyland
The timing could not have been worse for news to circulate about the rupture of five propane-filled composite cylinders at a Heritage Propane facility in Miami April 4, 10 and 13 – just eight weeks before the propane industry had hoped to tap into the virgin cabinet heater market.
Read More Financial mistakes in family business
June 1, 2007 By Carl Hughes
Many family owned businesses in this industry do a lot of things very well, yet can blunder terribly when it comes to financial matters. These errors can cost the family significant value and prevent it from achieving the very goals it set out to achieve when the business was started.
Read More Thoughts on the new gas check
June 1, 2007 By John McCoy
It is sometimes hard to keep up with all of the new and excellent safety material streaming out of our friends at PERC. I think I could spend each article in the magazine writing about new products available from the PERC pipeline. So far the industry has been extremely well-served by the quality of the safety products we have seen. The new material on GAS Check is just one more example of excellent work that is now available for the industry to use.
Read More Electric co-ops seek, gain support
June 1, 2007 By Lisa Bontempo
Rural electric cooperatives (RECs) have not missed a beat in protecting their interests before Congress this session. The non-profit RECs, through the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (NRECA) and their 900 member cooperatives, continue to be effective lobbyists for their cause.
Read More Safety in New World: a tough order
May 1, 2007 By Jay Johnston
Nationwide, business managers are trying to quantify the process of safety to an exact science. In short, they believe they can turn the topic of safety into a sort of New World order.
Read More Resolving conflict in the family business
May 1, 2007 By Carl Hughes
Sibling rivalries. Father–son power battles. Non-active vs. active shareholder issues. Patriarchs unable to relinquish the reins to the next generation. A family-owned propane company’s conflicts come in all types and variations.
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