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Friendships and Faith: In his book Business as
a Calling, Michael Novak1 lists
"community-building" (along with "innovation" and "practical
realism") as the virtues businesspeople bring to society.
9Wood's
community-building began Sunday morning on Feb 24, 2004.
The original 9Wood partners met to discuss the possibility
of going into business together. At this very first meeting,
it was agreed that to join together as partners we needed
to know if we shared the same values. We didn't have a business,
a name, or a real plan. But we knew we needed to share basic
convictions. We finalized them a couple of weeks later over
coffee. Like a compass, they still guide our thinking. 9Wood's
core values, crafted by the original owners, are 5 interdependent
essentials:
1) Character: To conduct ourselves with the integrity
called forth in Biblical Eldership and applied to business
(attitudes like humility, truth-seeking, pursuing honest
gain).
2) Partnership Paradigm: To make consensus based
decisions, with a win-win bias.
3) Servant Leadership: To live out "Leadership
that serves," not "I'm the Master, you're
in the dark." |
4) Our Mission: To improve the economic
welfare and quality of life of all stakeholders.
5) Accountability: To practice mutual
submission, with a disposition toward giving responsibility
and holding each other accountable. |
Out of these values spring our company's approach to business;
things like:
- Open Book financials so that each employee knows the real
score;
- Consensus based decision making built on knowing the score;
- A profit sharing system to share when the score tells us
we reached our goals;
- Win-Win employee agreements where our unique giftings can
be released;
- A focus on improving our work life together (like having
fun at work, opportunity, respect) along with the financial welfare
of all our company's stakeholders;
- A goal to serve our customers—both inside and outside the
company.
The History of 9Wood: How did this wood ceilings niche and
this idealistic management team connect to form 9Wood, Inc.? Like
all history, it begins before we made a single contribution to wood
ceilings. Prior to this century, of course, wood ceilings have
been utilized in many architectural styles. The most common were
wood coffer and tongue & groove plank ceilings.
The starting point for 9Wood's antecedents, however, really begins
with the installation of the first suspended wood ceiling. The
operative word here is "suspended." This marks the start of attaching
wood ceilings to suspended T-Bar grid for commercial application.
Using T-Bar to suspend wood ceilings brought all the advantages
of suspended ceilings (low cost, ease of installing mechanical,
electrical, & plumbing assemblies, and accessibility).
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| "Bill, I just don't get the concept...
a bench on the ceiling?" |
In the US, credit is usually given to Bill Shank. Shank, an Independent
Manufacturers Rep for Division 9 specialty ceilings, was attending
a trade show in the mid '60s and happened to come across a Howard
Manufacturing Grille Bench. The Hemlock Grille Bench had been developed
by Paul Howard to utilize the off-fall from his Hemlock ladder business
located in Kent, Washington. Shank saw the product and thought,
"That should be used in the ceiling!" Along with Roger Leon, of
DSA New York, he developed a clip that would attach the grille bench
to T-Bar-and the rest is history.
Another specialty ceiling contributor in the 1960s was Bud Blitzer
of Integrated Ceilings. Coming out of the lighting business, Bud
created the first concealed suspension ceiling. This breakthrough
ushered in the real era of specialty ceiling manufacturing. It opened
up huge design opportunities for architects.
Bud's friend Sharol Brodie, of Forms + Surfaces, a trend-setting
company in the 1970s, developed a Linear Wood Plank ceiling, along
with other specialty finishes.
In the 1980s other companies pioneered the suspended wood ceiling
business, including Jim Thorson of Wood Tech Pacific, and Steve
Anderson of ASI. A pair of brothers from Belgium, using their trade
name Derako, began exporting their European-made Linear wood planks
into the United States. Wayne Robinson began sales managing the
Derako line, eventually getting into the fabrication business as
Rulon Co.
In the early 1990s, two of the owners of 9Wood, Charley Coury (Sales
and Estimating) and Dan Boustead (Engineering and Operations) began
working for a company called Pacific Wood Systems, a spin-off of
Wood Tech Pacific. The owner, Merle Tyler, was a creative entrepreneur
and offered Charley and Dan wide latitude to help build the business
on the sales side and on the engineering side. Eventually, Leo
Batenhorst (Project Management) and Andy Gossard (Controller) were
also added to the PWS management team (later renamed Wood Ceilings,
Inc.). Working together at WCI formed the foundations and forged
the friendships that helped launch 9Wood, Inc.
In the 2000s other companies began entering the wood ceilings business.
Armstrong World Industries, apparently energized from its business
dealings with the European manufacturer Wilhelmi, expanded its wood
ceiling offerings. Other companies have come and gone over the
years, but these remain the prime movers, and the main thread leading
to the founding of 9Wood.
In July 2004, after experiencing some dramatic changes at WCI,
9Wood, Inc. was born. "We chose 9Wood because we felt it poetically
captured the essence of our identity," Coury recalls.
 High-Tech/High-Touch:
the alpha-numeric name symbolizes a commitment to maintain the tension
between an engineered, computer-assisted manufacturing company and
the high-touch, responsiveness of a boutique custom fabricator.
Inside
our Industry: For those inside the industry, "9" has a special
meaning. Division 9 FINISHES locates the niche where we and our
customers make our livelihoods: Division 9 Reps, Drywall and Acoustic
Contractors, and Acoustical Consultants. This is the division in
which architects specify wood ceilings.
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