Imagine That!

For the first three decades independent paint retailers and handful of the field and executive staff who called on them were the only readers of my screeds, at that time available only by thumbing a copy of the Paint Dealer Magazine. When the Paint Dealer closed in 2020 I became a blogger, though the demographics did not change much.   

Until I announced that I had been hired as the Strategic Counselor by Dan Calkins, THE freshly-minted CEO of Benjamin Moore, readership doubled.  Six months later when #Dan changed his mind readership doubled again with the year after that spent writing about THE man thinking he was my meal ticket to higher ratings.

Which it turns out he was not.

During the Kelly-Moore affair I first considered that #Dan might be holding me back as readership surged with news of that company’s shuttering.  THE attention pushed Benjamin Moore below the fold for the first time in my career, where they’re likely to stay unless #Dan does something exciting. 

Because the divestiture at PPG and machinations at Pittsburgh swelled the ranks here even further.

When Sherwin-Williams CEO Heidi Petz cut the 401(k) match for everybody but herself, disdain for that action conspired with that company’s size to add thousands to my following which now totals more than 10,000 subscribers.

Thank you all and like you, I've had enough of Dan.

Readers are to writers as the squirrel is to the dog: an irresistible ambition which genetics compels us to chase.  Having learned the lesson of my Calkins infatuation I know better than to focus my attention on just Heidi and Brian, if I want to reach the paint geeks not currently in my orbit.   

So my plan is to add coverage of more paint manufacturers in the coming months including RPM, Behr, Dunn Edwards and the merger between AkzoNobel and Axalta whose succeeding enterprise will be the planet’s second-largest coatings manufacturer.

To support that effort I created a prompt so that Google Gemini can do the heavy lifting of sorting Paint’s news into the compelling and the rest, saving me that effort following Sherwin-Williams and PPG while vastly expanding the sphere of my coverage. 

To better inform that effort I’m seeking connections at those firms. Sources willing to share a scoop or confirm what I already know, a step I go through three times before I represent anything as fact here–so I’m hoping to meet more than a few.     

If you work at any of those companies and want inform Paint's conversations you can start the conversation here.

First Things First

In October I learned that the president of Behr Megan Selby had been let go after just two years on the job, news I reported on LinkedIn though lacking sources at Behr was never able to follow-up.  Had I those sources we would now all know why Selby had been given such a short leash, which may not be our business but seems to be your obsession. 

 Last week Behr announced Selby’s replacement VJ Teenarsipur who like Selby had no experience in paint before being appointed to that job.  Despite the moisture behind his ears I’m already giving VJ credit, at least for knowing THE first thing to do when you’re appointed to a big job in paint.    

I’ve got three engagements ongoing, each nascent though expected to continue for more than a year.  Two seek to employ artificial intelligence and as those projects advance it’s hard not to marvel at the capabilities of that technology. 

One engagement seeks to apply AI to one of our industry’s great vexes, a significant disruption if we are successful though there’s miles to go before that rest. 

THE other engagement uses artificial intelligence as a multiplier of force allowing output in an instant which heretofore would have taken weeks.  Used in this way it’s easy to see how AI might alter the employment landscape as teams of people are replaced with apps of infinite capabilities. 

Leaving imagination as man’s only purview.