Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/117833
Contractor Connection The Best Dealers Are TEAM PLAYERS URS EC���s top fleet decision-maker reflects on what makes for a successful dealer-customer relationship. By Giles Lambertson Though the new engine technician was fresh out of diesel mechanic school and not long off the farm, management saw something a little extra in the young man and quickly moved him up to front-line supervisor of six mechanics. It was a good move. Forty years and many promotions later, Bob Merritt is the global director of equipment for the Energy and Construction (EC) division of URS Corp. The international engineering, construction and technical services company had revenues in 2012 of nearly $11 billion. There might be a lesson in there somewhere for equipment dealers looking for good people around whom to build a company: Look in the maintenance shop. ���It kind of evolved,��� Merritt says now, looking back on his career. ���I thought I would be a mechanic forever.��� And that would have been just fine for someone who derived great satisfaction from working on machinery at his father���s dairy farm and loved dirt-bike riding. However, mentors and prescient bosses had other plans for him and Merritt bought into them. ���Opportunities came along and I was ready, and I took them,��� he said with his usual plain-spoken understatement. 26 | www.cedmag.com | Construction Equipment Distribution | April 2013 26_Contractor_Conn_Feature_KP.indd 26 3/25/13 12:08 PM