A Name You Should Know

David Kruse -- MCAA president

This month’s “Name You Should Know” is David Kruse. David’s dedication to the industry is evident in the Kruse name, which transcends generations in the p-h-c industry. Phc News thinks he is a person worth getting to know.  

David Kruse bio --

• President, L.J. Kruse Company, Berkeley, Calif.
• President, Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA)

My wife Lisa and I have two boys, 21 and 17. I have two adult children who are both in the plumbing industry. My son is a project manager for one of the largest plumbing contractors on the West Coast and my daughter is a VP here at L.J. Kruse Co.

1. How did you first get involved in the industry?

I graduated UC Berkeley in 1972 and was thinking of going on to grad school. My dad was running L.J. Kruse Co. at the time and I asked him for a summer job because I needed a little extra cash. He said sure and put me out on a housing tract. The foreman was a guy I will never forget. His name was Ruben and he taught me more about life in three months than I learned in all my school days. I loved it. That fall I joined the ua plumbing apprenticeship program at Local 444 and worked in the field for a number of years before coming in to the office. Here we are 35 years later. As time went on I really began to appreciate what a great industry we have, and in 1984 I became president of L.J. Kruse Co.

2. If you weren’t doing this, what is it you think you would be doing?

I love the mountains, so I’d be a ski instructor in the winter and run a little marina in the summer.

3. What would you consider your major achievements?

I am proudest of what we have done at L.J. Kruse Co in the last 20 years to make our company one of the most respected in the Bay Area.

In addition, it has been very gratifying seeing the response in our industry to the green and sustainable building initiatives we have put forward at MCAA. I have been pushing green for years now, and it certainly has reached a tipping point.

4. What are some major issues facing contractors today? How can they be rectified?

I think running a contracting firm is simply more difficult today than when my dad was running L.J. Kruse, or when my grandfather was national president of PHCC in the 1930s. Government rules and regulations make it tougher. Insurance issues are so much more complex and the risks are greater. More and more the mechanical contractor is asked to assume greater and greater risk. It is a different playing field now, and we have some significant issues to solve as an industry.

The first major issue is manpower. We continue to battle plenty of other challenges such as consolidations, roll-ups, utility competition, commodity instability, and the like, but this one seems different. It doesn’t matter if you are big or small, qualified manpower is the key.

The great thing about MCAA is that it really knows what a contractor needs. The Career Development Committee and local MCAA affiliates sponsor close to 40 MCAA student chapters at universities and colleges around the country. These young people are shown what the mechanical industry is all about. They come to our educational conferences and realize what great opportunities there are in our industry. MCAA provides internships and eventually many of these students end up working for our contractors. MCAA has also made a significant commitment to the ace Mentoring program to enlighten and motivate high school students to consider career opportunities in our industry.

Our labor partners at the United Association are likewise working to ease manpower shortages. They are addressing the industry’s needs through the adoption of direct entry and accelerated training programs, through provisional membership categories and through the Helmets to Hardhats program.

The second major issue we face as contractors is managing change to take advantage of all of the opportunities in the marketplace without taking on too much risk.

In our company we have incredible people and we do a good job with the daily challenges of putting the right resources in the right place at the right time. Our biggest challenge has been how to best manage our growth.  We have grown both on the service side and on the construction side and they each have their unique and different needs. I see service as a huge potential market and we recently expanded our service department to a new 7,000-square-foot facility. We are also developing new capabilities as we take on green building projects. The tricky part is to foster the growth without losing sight of the goal. If you take your eye off the ball for a second, you put everything at risk. It has been hard for us, in a family business environment, to keep that intimate feeling as we have grown.

5. The goal of the MCAA is to…?

MCAA’s vision is “to empower our industry to create a better future.” Our goal is to always exceed our members’ rising expectations -- certainly an ambitious undertaking. We are an association of associations, and all of our volunteer contractor members, like me, come from our over 90 affiliated associations nationwide.

We focus on nine strategic objectives: further our reputation as the education association by fostering an environment of continuous learning; provide our members resources and support to become industry leaders in green mechanical construction, plumbing and service; aid in workforce recruitment; maintain a strong and cooperative relationship with the United Association to better serve our customers and increase market share; evaluate technologies and management methods to advance best practices; recognize and adapt to industry trends; support our affiliated associations; enhance market opportunities for our members; and develop new value-added services.

6. What is the significance of education in the industry and how does MCAA work with contractors?

Education is critical for contractors if they want to stay ahead of the change curve. Some of our programs are popular every year: our Advanced Leadership Institute for rising executives in conjunction with Babson College; our Institute for Project Management (IPM) and Advanced IPM; our safety conference; our prefab seminar; and of course, our annual convention. The key to our success with these is the involvement of our contractor volunteers in developing these programs and keeping them fresh.

New this year are learning opportunities that help companies develop the knowledge and resources they need to succeed in the developing green marketplace. In September, in Milwaukee, we are holding our first ever Green Opportunities Conference -- “Catch the Next Wave: Seizing the Green Opportunities that Lie Ahead.” We have a great line-up of speakers and the conference will include a showcase of green products from 16 manufacturers and a tour of a gold LEED corporate headquarters. Separately, we are offering prep courses to help prepare for the LEED Accredited Professional exams for New Construction and Existing Buildings (through ASCA). The LEED AP designation provides credibility with owners and creates bidding opportunities for green projects.

MCAA also serves its members by providing educational resources for our members’ use. A training DVD on hexavalent chromium sent out this year is the 56th free resource provided under our safety excellence initiative. A new DVD is on the way that that shows our workers how to identify 20 of the most common injury-causing hazards found on the job site and how to avoid them.

Recent management resources provided by MCAA include a collective bargaining guide and legal analysis; a white paper on accounting and job cost software selection strategies; a guide to human resources policies; and a guide on how to find, hire and manage student interns.

7. What are your personal initiatives for the industry?

My first priority is to continue the great work MCAA’s president last year, Mike Cullinane, did in working with general president Bill Hite and the new leadership at the UA. We have a fantastic opportunity to move forward with the UA and to capture new and existing markets.

Also, as I said before, I am a huge proponent of sustainable construction and green building technology and I think there are tremendous market opportunities out there for our contractors. Almost all of our projects have a “green” component to them here in California. At MCAA we have made a commitment to provide the resources our members need to become industry leaders in green and sustainable mechanical construction, plumbing and service.

Green building is a great opportunity to show the world what mechanical contractors can do to solve one of the most pressing issues of our time -- the threat of global climate change -- while increasing our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil. A United Nations study released in March indicated that improved architecture and energy savings in buildings could do more to fight global warming than the curbs in greenhouse gases set forth by the Kyoto Protocol. Mechanical contractors are using their expertise to assist owners as they try to lower life-cycle costs and build green.

MCAA has been working with the U.S. Green Building Council and the William Clinton Foundation’s Climate Initiative to grow the green building market. Green is truly the new red, white and blue, and we all have to get behind it. Anyone having second thoughts on this should read Thomas Friedman’s April 15th column in The New York Times. Green is “geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic.” Green is our future, our children’s future, our industry’s future, America’s future, and I feel privileged to be leading MCAA at a time when we can make a real difference in our world.

8. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Lisa and I love to travel. We have a special spot outside of Cortona, Italy that is our favorite getaway. You can look out over the Tuscan countryside and sip the world’s best Brunello!

9. The future of the PHC/mech industry looks …?

I am optimistic about our industry on many fronts. We have smart, talented young people coming into the industry as both apprentices and management trainees. We have exciting green market opportunities that will make a real difference. And we have progressive partners at the UA. The future looks bright.