I had a great interview with Pete and he was very generous with his time so I split it into two sections – this is the second half.  We sat down at Cianbro HQ in Pittsfield, Maine.   Here are some quick insights that I took away – what are some of yours?

-Maine people don’t want anything more than an opportunity.  When I see the pain and suffering that exists in this state, I feel guilty for the success that I’ve had.  I want to allow our people to be part of the success.

-We do some crazy stuff. When you work together and create the right environment, anything’s possible. We’ve been identified as the healthiest and safest company in the country.  There is huge opportunity in the State,  it just takes a little hard work.

-Say you’re in a situation where nobody can get enough welders to bid on a key job.  You can complain about that.  But if you train 250 welders, you’ll have 250 welders.  The other guy won’t.  The companies that have the people get the work.

-We can’t recreate the past.  In Maine, we build things.  If we look at the effect of the pulp and paper industry, 70-80% of our business was pulp and paper, now it’s 6%.  We’ve had to reinvent ourselves.   That’s how we can build components for oil fields in Brewer.

-There will be tremendous demand for well-educated and skilled people.  This is a North American and European problem.  It isn’t a Maine problem.  We have good quality of life.  We have good availability of people and resources.   Our people can do anything you put in front of them.   So we spend hugely in training, and we export our knowledge and our skill.

Lastly: Cianbro outfitted the leading search engine company’s oblong cargo vessel.  Pete is not at liberty to talk about it.  But do you wanna be invited to the party, when they finally let on what they’re doing with it?  Like the show on Facebook – it’s as good of a chance as any.

The post #17: Key Insights from Pete Vigue of Cianbro appeared first on The Grow Maine Show.