Taipan of the Noble House; Ian Dunross Struans. If these names mean anything to you you'll probably enjoy this blog post. James Clavell (of Shogun fame) wrote a fabulous novel called Noble House. It was a sequel to the equally impressive novel, Taipan. These are my two favorite books. I read them as a young adult and have re-read them several times. My wife thinks I'm crazy since I read them so often, but they are inspirational and entertaining for me. They definitely influenced my career path. … [Read more...]
Business Travel Adventures in China: Airline Exercises
June 3, 2009 By 1 Comment
One of the coolest things I get to experience in my role at BuildDirect is seeing things that many others wouldn’t see. This little video shows one of those moments. I was flying from Shenzhen airport in the south of China up north to Shenyang airport on a Chinese domestic airline call Shenzhen Airlines. Other than the obvious differences in the service, language, food and ‘movie’ selection (I’m a little concerned that the general population that fly domestic Chinese airlines may all end … [Read more...]
Domotex Shanghai Flooring Show
March 31, 2009 By 4 Comments
I attended Shanghai Domotex from March 24th to 26th. The show was effected by the global economic times. It is still a very, very big show (10 airport sized hangers full of booths) but number of booths were probably down 30% from last year. I’d estimate traffic was also off approx 30%, but the interesting conclusion drawn from many of the companies that had booths was they figured foreigner traffic was down 90% from two years ago. 90%! That is a huge decline. The local domestic traffic was … [Read more...]
BuildDirect Meets Mike Holmes of Holmes on Homes
January 22, 2009 By 5 Comments
I had a great opportunity to spend some time with Mike Holmes of 'Holmes on Homes' (#1 show on HGTV Canada for several years) and I was able to spend a little time on his show (24 seconds to be exact!). Take a look: The show continues to be shown and it has received millions of audience impressions. If you are not familiar with the show, here is a brief summary of its footprint and specifically of the show I was on. It has been pretty cool getting calls from friends across the continent … [Read more...]
Hello From Rob Banks – That’s Me
January 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Hello All, Welcome to my initial blog post. As you can read in my profile, I am one of two Co-Founders of BuildDirect. The other Co-Founder, Jeff Booth (see Jeff’s blog) and I have been friends for over two decades now (ouch, getting a bit old!) and growing BuildDirect into the company it is today has been a fabulous experience. It has been a long and difficult road, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. It is my greatest joy in my professional career and other than my family & … [Read more...]
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