Embracing Difficulty to Turn Big Ideas into Transformative Reality
Posted on 11.22.2024 by John McCormick“We do hard things” could be the motto for Day & Zimmermann’s Maintenance and Construction (DZMC) division.
I say that because every day our teams take on high-risk work in hazardous environments. We specialize in safely executing large, complex engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) projects in power, renewables, industrial, and government markets and service expansive, geographically dispersed assets for dozens of companies.
For DZMC, doing the hard thing of taking on high-risk projects isn’t just about meeting market demand; it’s an unspoken strategy for establishing our company as a trusted partner willing to push boundaries and innovate to help our customers bring big ideas life. It’s a strategy that also drives our internal focus on processes, procedures, and continuous improvement that helps us foster a strong culture of safety, work efficiently as one team, and deliver project execution excellence. Big ideas, even if hard to bring to life, have a compounding effect on the economy and communities and on those who find meaningful careers with DZMC being part of something bigger than themselves.
Companies in the power, renewables, industrial, and government markets that DZMC serve form the backbone of the modern world. We understand that for our customers, difficulty is a feature, not a flaw, of meaningful progress. Consider this:
- We maintain our country’s existing power plants and support construction of next-generation energy technology like small modular reactors and renewable energy sources like solar.
- We back some of the largest industrial manufacturers to secure the domestic semiconductor supply chain and build facilities that will make the next generation of electric vehicles in America.
- We are a government constructor for science, supporting the Department of Energy in building the infrastructure to back various aspects related to fusion research.
Difficulty is equally a feature of our own meaningful progress within DZMC. We are challenging our teams to think differently about our business and how we do what we do. We have tasked them to find ways to better leverage our talent and expertise, drive process standardization, and streamline our internal structure for improved agility.
It’s a big ask, I know. But I believe it’s worth it because making our company better tomorrow than it is today safeguards our future and positions our business as a great and meaningful place to work for generations to come. Like the important work our customers undertake, tackling our own toughest challenges brings both substantial rewards and positive change.
In this season of giving thanks, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the people of DZMC—on sites and at our locations and home offices across the U.S. and in Canada—who tackle the toughest challenges inherent to our business, making a difference and shaping the world around them as a result.
We do hard things — this defines DZMC’s approach to both immediate project success for our customers and long-term sustainability for our company. By having the high standards and work ethic to bear the risk and responsibility for difficult, complex projects, we’re sending the message to customers to trust in our company’s actual motto — We do what we say.®