Getting caught up

Well I see that I have not remained as focused on this project as I had hoped I would. Hopefully the job has begun to settle in most areas. The merger between our companies was an absolute disaster. It is painfully obvious to me that US Concrete made two near fatal mistakes. First and most important, they made the mistake of not capitalizing on the momentum and strength of management of our company, (which is what we were all told at our initial meeting with the CEO and COO). I think if they had been true to their word, the only issue would of been that of acclimating a privately held company to the environment of that of a publicly traded company (compliance, required processes etc). Second, they failed to understand the market conditions that exist in Dallas/Ft Worth. While they have operations in other major markets across the company, nowhere else is the strength of competition that is vertically integrated in the industry as this market is. Additionally, in other markets they have the commanding share of business and here there are 3 other producers that are as strong or stronger in market share as we are. With the dynamics of the personalities of managers on both sides, there were some serious collisions (including me on more than one occasion). Now we are almost two years into the process, most of the above mentioned issues have settled to an acceptable level. There have been casualties on both sides of management and operations. At this point, I am running all the concrete operations, and have (for the most part) the right group of managers working for me. Raising the level of quality management, leadership and professionalism has proved to be quite challenging, however I am up for the challenge. Just the day to day operations given the geography of the company keeps me very busy as there are well over 125 miles from the furthest plants. I have been asked to move my office from Denton where I have been for over 18 years to Euless. This means my commute just to the office has gone from 48 miles each way to 82 miles.
Well, enough of that for now. Maybe I will be more focused on staying current. I guess the date of my next entries will prove that out.