By Wayne Rivers, The Family Business Institute

Hello, this is Wayne Rivers at The Family Business Institute. Thanks for tuning in. The headlines have been pretty bleak for the last month or so or about since the beginning of March. So, I thought this week you'd like to have some good news.

Life sometimes hands you lemons and the people who prosper are the people that can make lemonade in those circumstances. So, I want to talk about two of our members that are really stepping up and doing some really cool and innovative things. The first is Commercial Contracting Corporation out of Auburn Hills, Michigan. The origin of that company was they started in World War II renovating automobile plants in order to make wartime production, so whether it happened to be tanks or jeeps or planes or whatever it was. Which stands them in good stead today, in the current crisis, because we have a need in our country now for ventilators.

So, there's a particular type of ventilators that is really quite portable and cutting edge. And so CCC, as we call them, was asked to retool a plant in Kokomo, Indiana, and they're basically going to turn this hundred thousand square foot plant into one giant clean room. So, the work is underway, even as we speak. They're going to help this company go from producing, get this now, 250 ventilators a month, that's their current production. They're going to be able to go from 250 to 10,000 a month, once this is complete. So, congratulations to our friends at CCC in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

The second example I want to give you is really innovative thinking as well, a different type. Myers & Chapman is one of our members in Charlotte, North Carolina. And Marcus Rabun is their chief executive and he's done something that I think is really super innovative. What Marcus has done is he's partnering with other commercial contractors in Charlotte and they're bringing in inspectors, fire marshals and people like that. So that they can have consistent procedures across almost all the commercial construction job sites in the city. They want their people to be healthy and safe, right? It makes perfect sense. So, Marcus, instead of saying, "Golly, we're going to do this on our own and we're going to focus just on our company," he said, "You know what? We're better off collaborating in this environment than competing on a situation like this where everyone's health and safety is at stake."

So, they've created a bi-weekly call that they intend to keep going after the current crisis, which I think is another great idea. They're seeking to make consistent health and safety processes across all the commercial construction sites in Charlotte, North Carolina. So, I really was proud about that. Some people get bogged down with worry in a time of crisis, and some people shine and show their leadership and innovate in a time of crisis.

So, congratulations to the folks at CCC, that's Steve, Brad and Joel, and congratulations to Marcus at Myers & Chapman for showing what leadership is all about in a challenging time. This is Wayne Rivers at The Family Business Institute. Thank you.

Watch the video on familybusinessinstitute.com.