Transcription of Mapping Maine’s Future #138
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast, recorded at the studios of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Download past shows and become a subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details. Here are some highlights from this week’s program.
Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show #138, “Mapping Maine’s Future,” airing for the first time on Sunday, May 4, 2014. How do we get from here to there? Maine magazine contributing editor Philip Conkling addresses this question in his piece, “A Leader Like No Other,” a thought-provoking piece about Cianbro CEO, Peter Vigue, in the May issue of Maine magazine. Today, we speak with Peter and Philip about the future of business in Maine, the possibility of an east-west highway and how we may use our resources and ingenuity to improve the work and personal lives of individuals, living within our state and elsewhere. We also discuss the importance of workplace wellness. We hope our conversation may inspire you to think differently about what it means to work and live in our great state. T
Thank you for joining us. I’m pleased to have in the studio with me two individuals who are doing really interesting things in the state. One of whom I know our listeners will be familiar with and this is Philip Conkling. Philip is a contributing editor for Maine Magazine and has also conceived and edited books on the local environment such as From Cape Cod to the Bay of Fundy – An Environmental Atlas of the Gulf of Maine and The Fate of Greenland – Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change, which won the Phi Beta Kappa award for science book of the year. Thanks for coming back in again.
Philip: Great to be here.
Lisa: With you, we have a newcomer Peter Vigue. He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Cianbro Companies. Peter’s ideas such as constructing an east-west highway using I-95 as a corridor for energy transport, entering Maine into offshore wind development as well as advocating for a healthier society has earned him the title as Maine’s leading business voice on our most pressing economic and social issues. We’re pretty pleased that you’re in here with us today.
Peter: Thank you very much for inviting me.
Lisa: The reason we that we have you both hear at the same time is because you spent time together working on an article for Maine magazine called “A Leader Like No Other” and I wanted to read from this article that you’ve written Philip, another fine job and anybody who’s listened to the show before and has gone back and read your articles knows how thorough you are when it comes to business and environment and wellness. Let’s read about that.
Although Pete Vigue is a man of many accomplishments, he is perhaps most proud of the company’s safety record under his leadership. We work in industry considered to be very unsafe. The one thing we can do about it is to lead by example, lead the way. We can do complex and difficult things without hurting people. In 1987, the company set out to be the safest construction company in America and became not just the safest construction company in the US, but a company with one of the most outstanding records in any industry, 52 months and over 12 million work hours without a single lost workday. Everyone goes home in the same condition they came to work in, he says firmly.
That’s impressive. Why is this so important for you?
Peter: Well, I view it as a moral obligation that we have to the people in our company. We really don’t produce anything other than a service to our clients and our ability to do that is all about people and it’s the people that make these things happen. It’s their collaborative effort that allows us to be successful and we have a responsibility to lookout after them. We’re an employee-owned company, we’re very sensitive to our folks. They help the company to be successful and as result we have an obligation to look out for them and their families. The moral side of it comes as a result of having seen or experienced things that wake us up and appreciate the fact that with the right kind of leadership that people do in fact maintain perhaps healthy lifestyle and go home in the same condition they come to work in. That’s an obligation that we as leaders have.
Lisa: Philip, when you came back from interviewing Pete as you like to be called, you said you were impressed by just the obvious attitude towards wellness, the apple on the table. It wasn’t just something that people were talking about, it wasn’t a lip service thing because I remember you discussing this during an editorial meeting.
Philip: Yeah, actually my experience with Cianbro on a personal level began when I was party of the Fox Island Winds Project where the communities of Vinalhaven and North Haven were erecting three wind turbines and Cianbro was selected to do the construction. They said, “Safety and wellness are very very important to us.” You hear that. Almost everybody kind of says that. The project took two or three months to build, I mean it was very complicated because of barging all things and there are lots of moving pieces. At one point, one of the workers slightly turned an ankle, I mean not anything serious, all work stopped for about an hour, where everybody on the crew sat down and talked about how to avoid any injury whatever.
That’s when the rest of us who were observing this said, “Whoa, these guys are really doing, they’re not just talking about it, they’re doing it.”
Lisa: In 1996, Cianbro actually instituted a wellness program, which continues on to this day and in 2004, the American College of Medicine’s Corporate Health Achievement Award as the healthiest and safest company in America as well as the Wellness Councils of America Platinum Level of Achievement Award, these were both awarded to Cianbro and again it’s not a company that you would necessarily associate with an interest in health and wellness. But you’re somebody that knows, I guess how work can impact life in general. You’ve been working pretty hard most of your life.
Peter: I have and I have observed a lot of things that were not pleasant to talk about that I learned from that induced or introduced a lot of pain and suffering on individuals and also certainly made me feel guilty as I entered responsibility arena within the organization and started to take responsibility for people. I found that to be unnecessary and avoidable and as a result we started first on a safety initiative going very very significant initiative back in 1987, where we introduced some new standards to the entire industry with full body harness is an example that came out of our company and is now law. Took us 10 years to get that to happen on a national level because we thought it was important, but we started first focusing on safety and understanding what at risk behavior was.
Educating our people within the organization on what was at risk in terms of their specific behavior and opening the dialogue up to a point where we would acknowledge openly the mistakes that had been made. We learned from that in a significant way and then when we started to really understand what was going on with wellness and recognizing that a significant amount, it said 75% of all of the health care cost in this country come as a result of self-induced behavior. We took our safety program and started to apply it to wellness and we started educating our folks, raising awareness, not just with our team members but their families as well and began to really introduce all kinds of programs that allow them to understand and see that the things they did to themselves as it related to their own personal health was impacting their quality life in the long term.
It has been quite a ride and an experience, but very very positive for our people and their families.
Lisa: You did not grow up in the lap of luxury, you’re from Pittsfield, you had to deal with some challenges, economic challenges when you were younger. How did this shape the way that you approached your professional life?
Peter: I want to be perfectly honest with you, the one gift that I’ve been given is that I learned how to work very hard at a very early age and I was able to get along with people quite well. I learned from people. That was the primary way that I learned is by interacting, communicating with people and as a result of that I started emulating the behavior of a number of individuals that I had a great deal of respect for. As a result of that I’m a product of the environment, having interacted and worked with many many very competent people over my tenure in the construction industry as an example within the Cianbro Organization for over are 44 years now.
I like learning and I like challenges and I am who I am because of the environment that I grew up in. It’s that simple. I wish I could explain it more, but that’s the way it is.
Lisa: Like Philip, you also were drawn to the ocean, you went to the Maine Maritime Academy and of course Philip was the Head of the Island Institute for many years and both of you have both the costal and inland kind of presence, but you’re a kid from Pittsfield. What was about the ocean that was so appealing?
Peter: Being from Pittsfield, well I was born in Aroostook County.
Lisa: Even better, it’s even further away from the ocean.
Peter: I was born in Aroostook County, Caribou, Maine and I always wanted to be a farmer. But at a very young age, it became very apparent to me that that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t make a living that way, couldn’t make a go of it. As a result, at a very young age, I believe I was 13 years old when I went to work on construction for another contractor. Actually that was headquartered in this building on the interstate. I got exposed to a whole group of people over a period of seven summers and I really like building things. But over the course for that time, I was going to school at Maine Maritime, got exposed to the ocean, which I really loved and loved the coasts in a significant way. But the challenges of going to see didn’t really satisfy me personally.
From a learning standpoint, it was during the period of Vietnam conflict. It was an unusual time but having been recently married and then when my wife and I decided to have our first child, I decided I wanted to be home and so I joined the Cianbro Organization actually in Portland, Maine on the waterfront. Because I was a merchant mariner, I spend a great deal of time out in Casco Bay on the islands and doing a lot of marine work in Portland. Again, met a lot of great people, but the company was very small at that time and so you did everything, which was like going to a classroom because you get exposed to so many things.
As a result, as the company grew, I grew. But I had made my home in Pittsfield, actually moved there at age eight and so decided that we would stay there.
Traveled a good bit with the company, actually lived outside of Washington DC, built a small dam across Potomac River and started an operation down there and moved my family there and had a tremendous experience. Learned a lot and got exposed to lot, much different place in Washington DC than in Pittsfield, Maine or even Maine for that matter, but again that raised my awareness about what was going on in the world outside of Maine and Pittsfield for sure. But it was a great experience and when you get exposed to an environment like that it allows you to raise the standard just a bit because your awareness is up there and you begin to suggest to yourself that we can do great things. That’s how I was given the opportunity to be exposed to those situations, which allowed not only the company to grow but allowed me to grow as well as an individual.
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Lisa: Philip, you’ve worked with a lot of different people in business, in the nonprofit world and the environmental world, I mean you just have a lot of experience with I guess the economic climate in Maine. What is it about Pete’s ideas about things like the east-west highway, what is it about that that is so intriguing to you and what’s so important?
Philip: One of the things that I loved about interviewing Pete was when he pointed out that in Maine, we all have a mental map of where Maine is and you look at Maine in the United States and we look like we’re at the end of the highway, we’re at the end of the road. Yet, if you step back and as increasingly all of us have to do and realize that we’re all global citizens as well, in fact as Pete pointed out, Maine is equidistant, is really in the middle of international trade routes and Eastport is the deepest port on the Atlantic Coast of the United States that has tremendous underutilized value from an international trade point of view.
That was just part of seeing Pete as a leader, looking through a new lens where Maine could be economically. It is a very exciting vision and one that is going to take Maine people some time to absorb, but it’s very challenging, very stimulating and very exciting if we can kind of pull back and see ourselves, not at the end of the road, but part of an international trade ecosystem that in fact we could be at the center of.
Lisa: It’s interesting that you would say that because it actually creates an entirely different visual when you think of the United States and it brings to mind your experience with the Maine Maritime Academy and as a merchant mariner that we may think of roads as hard and cars drive over them, but boats also float on the ocean, on their own sets of roads. This is the kind of thinking that we need to have more of, is that it’s not just what we can see, it’s what might already be in existence that we haven’t quite matched up with what’s there.
Peter: That’s exactly right and I believe that you can maintain quality of life, you can maintain the qualities of this state that exist here today and be very sensitive to the environment. But at the same time, take advantage of opportunities that will exist in the future and do it in a way that will allow us to maintain a quality of life that we all enjoy here in the state of Maine because what we’re really experiencing and I have to go back to this is a huge transformation in our economy here in the state. The northern half of the state is significantly challenged economically, people are herding, communities are disappearing. I mean it’s a sad commentary when you evaluate the fact that the death rate exceeds the birth rate and the number of people on social programs and all.
At a time when people only want one thing and that is an opportunity, so I look beyond the state of Maine, look beyond the United States and say what is the future going to bring in, where does that position, the state of Maine and if you go back 100 years and ask yourself, “Why was Maine the lumber capital of the world, what was two things that we had back then that was a great advantage to us?” That is we had a natural resource and we also had the ocean, which really allowed this state to grow in a significant way. If we look at the world today, as it exists in this field indicated here earlier that we are at a midpoint but then add the Arctic shipping that might come one day and recognize that we are the closest point on the east coast for sure, if that ever comes to pass. It’s forecasted that it will sooner, than later.
Then look at all of what we have to offer, this country today has positioned itself where our cost of energy is 50% less than anyone in the world. On top of that we have the largest market in the world today. The cost of transporting goods is a significant cost. There’s going to be a lot more global interaction going forward in the future. It’s forecasted that the middle part of the United States, from the northern part of the US from the Canadian border all the way down to Gulf Coast, which is the heavy industrial and manufacturing center of North America will continue to grow. In fact, it will accelerate. A lot of what we’ve lost in the last 20 years will come back. If you look at that statistics, you look at the fact that the President of United States has set a goal to double the export capacity of the United States.
Couple that with the fact that every port along the east coast from Miami to New York is super congested that exists even on the West Coast as well and look at the cost of handling one single container, which is a major cost factor and look at where we are with the deepest port in the continental United States in Eastport Maine and look at that location in terms of the Midwest. We’re the closest point to the Midwest without any congestion, a port without any congestion. I’m not talking about creating a port that is like New Jersey, New York or Charleston or some of these other areas, I’m talking about efficiency in terms of connecting the rail, to the Upper Midwest. If you look at the map simply and look at the distance it is to the Upper Midwest, all the way down to the Gulf Coast, we’re the closest point.
We’re the least cost point in terms of any other port along the eastern seaboard and I believe that you can do this and preserve the quality life. When I look at Washington County as an example whose population is about a third of what it was 25 years ago. Then, look at the challenges they have economically and the lack of opportunity. There’s nothing there and look at the space that could be utilized without destroying the quality of life or the environment. I believe that it would have a huge effect on Maine from the potential of developing a port, but beyond that the jobs that would be created, land-based distribution centers and things like that and the small businesses that potentially could flourish because of their ability to export via containers.
If we would simply build that into our thought process, say nothing about the Arctic shipping possibilities that will exist in the future years, I think Maine is positioned and poised to take advantage of that. That’s not to say that Portland won’t work because that’s a totally different geographic area that’s being serviced to Iceland and also the Scandinavian countries, but again how do we operate as a global trade center as a state. Again, why, we’ve got three port system in the state.
We have huge potential and the best potential I think that we have is the workforce we have, the work ethic we have, the competency and the capability of people that I have personally worked with within our company as we had taken on some very sophisticated projects that we had never done before and seen personally how the people of the state responded to that opportunity in terms of their safety, their ability to meet a schedule and the quality of the work and their ability to compete financially, it’s second to none. We’ve proved that on multiple occasions and that gives me great hope to suggest that there will be a future for this state, well beyond what we think of it today.
The greatest fear that I have and if you read the book by George Friedman, The Next 100 Years and you look what’s going to happen globally with the population and we’re seeing it happen in our own state because of our aging population, we’re going to shrink population wise. Who will it be that will broaden our tax base, who will develop the next generation of workforce if we don’t lay the groundwork for them, if we don’t create the right business atmosphere and think of ourselves as being far more capable than what we are today. Who will do it? I believe that our generation has a responsibility to put those things in perspective and to communicate those, but more than that it’s one thing to talk about it, it’s another thing to lead by example, to show others the way.
I take that very seriously as an individual. Our company takes it very seriously and we’re very proud of what the people in this state are capable of achieving.
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Philip: Every great idea requires great leadership to implement and you wouldn’t necessarily think of a construction company as being a leader in health and wellness and yet because Pete set out to be a model for, he wanted his company to aspire to being great in terms of its record of health and wellness, they worked really hard on it. You know what, they changed of mindsets and became that leader, all of the people of Cianbro. Like way, I think this idea of Maine being part of a much bigger global transportation system and the opportunities that it creates for us, particularly in parts of the state that are really being left behind. That’s an enormous challenge, but with the right leadership, there’s no reason we couldn’t do that.
Peter: Clearly the demand is there. The demand on a global basis is there. The opportunities are there and there are certain risks that are inherent in taking on these challenges. There’s no question about it. I believe that we understand what those are, we need to be quite guarded in approaching these things, to not sacrifice the quality of life, not sacrifice the environment that we live in here. But, at the same time, if you simply look at the environment in some of these areas, the quality of life environment, the quality of community, all of that when you see abandoned buildings, abandoned homes, you see people leaving, you don’t see quality of life because of their access to healthcare, because the schools are going away and that the infrastructure exists in many of these places and it’s well underutilized and not taken advantage of.
At the same time, we’re building infrastructure in other parts of the state, where there’s a more of a population center, I think it’s counterproductive, doesn’t add a lot of value and things get worse in these other areas. I think the one driving force for me and I do travel around the state in very significant way throughout the state, I know a lot of people and a lot of communities very well. When you see people that are suffering that had no future ahead of them, they’re destitute, some cases they’re not very healthy and they’re just eking out a living any way they possibly can just to survive and in my opinion, this is America. This is a great state and people deserve more than that and they don’t ask for anything more than that opportunity.
I believe that it’s incumbent on us as leaders, business, education and government have a responsibility to collaborate, to work together to take advantage of the opportunities that exist globally to paint a picture, to develop a strategy, to take this state to a whole new level. We’ve been there before. We knew what it took years ago, it took a vision of people to bring together ideas and thoughts and to develop opportunities for people. We’re in a whole new era now and we’ve learned a lot from the last 100 years I think in terms of dealing with our environment, we’ve learned a lot about the sins of the past and what not to do. I think we can have it both ways and really enhance quality of life for everybody in this state.
Philip: A great model for that really is playing out right now in this offshore wind opportunity. Here, you have private business like Cianbro and its other partners, you have the University up in Orono under Habib Dagher’s leadership and you have government in terms of what the PUC and the legislature has set out as goals and policies for developing the offshore wind resource. You have those three entities basically aligned to give Maine a real leg up in this next energy frontier. It is a tremendous opportunity. It’s the first time that I’ve seen in my 35 or 40 years of being here in Maine, where the University, private enterprise and the government are all on the same page in terms of a tremendous economic development plan and implementation process. It really could be the model for the future.
Lisa: It sounds like what we need is collaboration. We need creative thinking. We need leadership and we need the ability to work hard. From everything you’re telling me, we have this within the state of Maine.
Peter: It exists today, there’s no question in my mind that all the pieces of the puzzle are here, it needs to be put together. It takes a lot a collaboration to do that. One of my major concerns as far as I can remember that this state has not had an economic strategy, so if we simply ask ourselves what are the two or three things that we’re going to invest in to take this state to a whole new level. Recognize that we have limited resources in terms of finance, so where do we place our bets in the future? Two or three things which we set out to become a national leader in those specific areas, a national leader, which means that the policies that exist in our state government, the educational areas of focus is to educate the potential workforce that will service these needs.
Then, rally the business community around it. It just takes three pieces of that possible to bring everything together and say, “We’re going to be number one.” Now, I’m going to give you a very good example of one that’s easy one, if this state decided that it wanted to be the breadbasket of the Northeast, so let’s just take that model. We’re within one day’s travel of 40% of the population of North America, one day’s travel. We’ve got the population base. Look at our fishery, look at what’s happening in Madison, look at all the potential, the largest broccoli grower in the United States in the summertime is located up in Aroostook County. Look what the folks at Libra Foundation have done with natural beef, naturally potatoes and the cheese out here, look at that model and the quality that is produced here in this state and where it’s sold.
People are willing to pay for quality and natural and organic, but again how many people in Maine can afford it. But people in Philadelphia sure can and in New York and Boston and throughout the entire Northeast. Think about this, think about the Maine brand alone, think about the possibility of pulling that entire brand together, whether it be the lobster or the fishery or the water and all these other products that are grown in greenhouses and the possibility of using that leveraging that Maine brand. Now why do I believe that that brand is so powerful, go to Manhattan any day of the work week, stand on any street corner and within one hour, you’re going to see at least one Poland Spring truck.
Go down to Houston, Texas and there are all kinds restaurants down there and these steak houses that exist down there. I have to go there on business, show me one of those major businesses that doesn’t have a lobster tank and that says Maine lobster. The lobsters are four pounds, they don’t even come from Maine, they come from Canada. But guess what, they advertise as Maine lobster. What does that say about the brand? Send a Maine worker anywhere in this country and say you’re from Maine and see how quickly they get hired because of the work ethic and the way this state and its people are perceived on the outside world and group it together, brand it the right way, all of us together and see how powerful that would be if we said, we were going to be the bread basket of the Northeast.
But, one example, the same thing applies to renewables, the same thing applies to why not Maine in terms of becoming the healthiest state in America, what’s wrong with that goal, why could that happen if we want to the National Institute of Health and said, “Invest in our state, develop models to allow us to develop a living laboratory, working with the Jackson Labs, working with the two major hospital systems in the state and the whole medical community including developing a virtual medical school here, developing programs that would be implemented statewide, to try and deal with the obesity issues, the health issues in this state and within that period of 10 years, you could get measureable results.” Why Maine, because we’ve got every cross-section of society living here, the most wealthy to the very poorest.
They live here but we could be a lab because there’s only a 1,300,000 people, you could implement and get measurable results within a relatively short period of time and then share that knowledge and information with NIH, who has a multibillion dollar budget, get them to invest $200, $300, $400 million here in the state annually, to create jobs, research, implementation and share it with the rest of the country so that they could implement these programs on a national basis because we already know that when you implement certain types of programs through education, using the educational institutions and using the medical community, all of these things that we could change things to the good here in the state of Maine.
At the same time, create economic activity and solve what I believe is this country’s number one challenge is health care and if we honestly believe that much of our health care costs, it’s been said up to 75% of our health care cost comes as a result of self-induced behavior. If we really believe that then why can’t we attack it with education and research and take it on nationally, but have it driven right here in the state of Maine.
Philip: Your vision, leadership, passion, those are the ingredients that’s why I had such a good time getting to know Pete and his whole program. It’s very very compelling.
Lisa: The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.
Ted: I’ve had the good fortune of working to some degree with the Lakota Indians and I am always amazed of the Native American teachings and the power of intention. I did a ceremony with them, a Yuwipi Ceremony actually and we all had to bring 500 prayer ties to the ceremony. As we did, each prayer ties stuffed with tobacco, we would say Tunkashila Mitakuye Oyasin. Tunkashila means creator and Mitakuye Oyasin means all my relations.
What I find striking about the Native American teachings is that all is one, it’s very first chakra. It’s very much about connection and connection to each other. In their teachings, they feel that the creator is the creator or the God force and the grandmother is the earth. We all have the same father and we all have the same mother. I think that’s something very important to realize that we are all connected and when tragedy strikes or when something happens, sometimes, we can feel that and we know something is up, we can’t quite put our hand on it. But knowing this and understanding how the earth works with these subtle energies and this form of connection between the great creator and the mother, makes us feel like we’re not so all alone in the world.
At times, when we’re despondent or having trouble, it’s important that we honor the earth and move out into nature and let her speak to us. She will comfort us and take good care of us. I am Ted Carter. If you’d like to contact me, I can be reached at TedCarterDesign.com.
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Speaker 1: Experienced Chef and Owner Harding Lee Smith’s newest hit restaurant Boone’s Fish House and Oyster Room, Maine seafood at its finest. Joining sister restaurants, The Front Room, The Grill Room and The Corner Room, this newly renovated two-story restaurant at 86 Commercial Street on Custom House Wharf overlooks scenic Portland Harbor. Watch lobster men bring in the daily catch as you enjoy baked-stuff lobster, rhubarb and wood-fired flat breads. For more information, visit www.TheRoomsPortland.com.
Lisa: Philip are you seeing similar attitude, similar vision in other leaders around the state that you’ve interacted with because I know that you are also very connected in the work that you have done in the past, the work you’re doing with Maine Magazine now, the working as a consultant, what kinds of things are brewing, are they similar to what Pete is describing?
Philip: Absolutely, I think Pete was talking about food earlier. Maine is actually really considered to be right in the sweet spot of all of this, making sure you’re eating things that you know where they were grown and how they were grown and what was put into them. This is a national level conversation, but Maine’s got 10 or 15 years’ of experience in this. Sure small operations, but now they’re beginning to scale up. MOFGA, Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association is the largest organic group of farmers and growers in the country. That didn’t happened overnight, but it happened because people here in Maine are used to starting small and then what we’ve been lacking is this scaling ability.
That’s what I think is really interesting about Pete’s point of view that you get to scale when you harness government and the University along with a lot of private initiatives that are the sort of the little testing labs, if you will or big in case of Cianbro, part of the reason Cianbro has gotten a lot of deserved credit is because they’re a large organization that has tested models that had proved successful. It’s a very important example of scaling these kinds of activities to larger and larger levels and there’s no reason that this can’t scale to the state level. It just takes leadership along with the vision. I think the future is ours.
Peter: Looking at what Libra Foundation has done and that wonderful lady Betty Noyce was extraordinary and she had tremendous vision, very outspoken, very direct and understood Maine very well and the potential that existed here. Her legacy is still very much alive and if you look …
Philip: Certainly.
Peter: If you go way north, up in Aroostook County and look at what natural beef is doing up there or naturally beef and what impact they’ve had on the county. They’ve got huge feedlot up there and they have employed a number of farmers that very likely would not be growing anything, but they’re growing barley and grain to feed these beef that are very attractive to the marketplace, most of it outside to the state of Maine. But it’s employed a number of people in Aroostook County. Essentially that model if you look at that model and then take it down the middle part of Aroostook County, where they’re doing the naturally potato business and adding value to potato and the cheese and Pineland and think about what are they doing?
They’re running a very successful business, but again what was Betty Noyce trying to accomplish? She was trying to improve the Maine economy, she could see the capability and the competency of the people in this state and so they’re setting the example for others to follow. That model is working because guess what, they’re selling to markets that are willing to pay extraordinary amounts of money for what they produce, which is quality, high high quality and they’re successful at doing it.
I’m not suggesting that we have to invent anything, the models are there. If we simply realize what benefit we have from our location, the natural resources we have, the competency of our people, if we simply work together and use the brand to leverage our position in the marketplace, I don’t think there’s anyone in the entire Northeastern part the United States that can come close to us in terms of the brand itself. As long as you bring it all together and operate as one, what does that really mean? That means distribution systems, that means marketing efforts, establishing ourselves in the marketplace outside of this state with these larger groups of people who deal with scale and numbers.
I think the opportunity would be huge and we need to look at it as such and granted recognize that over 80% of the businesses in the state have 20 or fewer employees, but that is, as Phil says, where they start. I can attest to that in our business, but I can point out many businesses here in the state and the key is collaboration, people willing to work together, raise the bar and the standard and recognize the benefit of collaboration and working together that will take us to a whole new level in this state.
Lisa: I know that we could talk on for hours, there’s so much interesting information, sort of stirring up in my own mind, I’m sure the people who are listening are feeling the same way. I encourage people to go and read more about you in the upcoming Maine Magazine article by Philip Conkling. We’ve been speaking with Peter Vigue who is the Chairman and CEO of the Cianbro Companies and also with Philip Conkling, the Contributing Editor for Maine Magazine and author multiple books and formally of the island Institute. I appreciate the work you’re doing because I know that wellness is such a broad topic and pretty much is the future right now. It’s what we need to be focusing on and obviously this is my field, so I’m glad to have so many other people with really great ideas coming in and saying, “Yeah, we want to be part of this too.” Thanks for coming in.
Peter: Well, thank you for allowing us to come in and express ourselves and also the fact that you understand this very important issue with wellness and it is in no uncertain term, in my opinion, the number one issue that we face in this country today.
Philip: Thank you Lisa.
Lisa: You’ve been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 138, east-west highway. Our guests have included Philip Conkling and Peter Vigue. For more information on our guests and extended interviews visit doctorlisa.org, the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week show, sign up for our e-newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. Follow me on twitter and on Instagram as bountiful1.
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Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary By Design, Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical, Mike LaPage and Beth Franklin of RE/Max Heritage, Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes, Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial, Dream Kitchens Studios, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms and Bangor Savings Bank.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is recorded in studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland Maine. Our executive Producers are Kevin Thomas, Susan Grisanti and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Our Assistant Producer is Leanne Ouimet. Audio production and original music by John C. McCain. Our online producer is Kelly Clinton. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is available for download free on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.