Taking the Bull by the Horns

May 1, 2004
I had the opportunity to visit the Bauma trade show in late March for the first time and for those who have never been I highly recommend the experience.

I had the opportunity to visit the Bauma trade show in late March for the first time and for those who have never been I highly recommend the experience. I always thought Con Expo was a huge and amazing show, and it is, but Bauma dwarfs it. Where ConExpo occupies about 120,000 square feet, Bauma tops a half million and draws nearly a half million visitors from more than 170 countries. Even with a whole week, it's hard to visit 2,800 exhibitors.

Although I don't mean to slight the excellent ConExpo, American Rental Association and World of Concrete shows, visiting Bauma was almost like a beer drinker who thought the world of beer was Budweiser attending a “beers of the world” convention with hundreds of brands to choose from. It can make your head spin. I saw equipment I'd never seen or heard of by manufacturers from around the world, although most of the major U.S. manufacturers we are all familiar with were there as well.

Some of the display booths — stands as they are referred to in Europe — were like small cities. The trade fair is on the grounds of the old Munich airport, which might give you an idea of the size (picture Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta or LAX). Caterpillar, for example, had an entire hangar and that was only its inside stand. Many manufacturers had large outdoor demo areas and offered entertainment, including bands, singers, dancers, acrobats and more. Many exhibitors had entire lounges, restaurants, and espresso bars for their visitors.

I recommend attending the next Bauma in 2007, and perhaps take some time for a few days of tourism and visits to European manufacturers. I had the opportunity to visit Wacker's impressive German facility, not far from Munich.

It was while I was wandering through aisle after aisle of amazing new equipment that I came up with the idea for our newest section in the magazine, “What Else is New?” With dozens of products introduced to the rental industry every month, it is impossible for us to cover all of them. So in each issue, we'll offer, in addition to our “New and Noted” section and our weekly “Product Wire” newsletter, a sampling of new products that are brand new to the industry, to help you, our readers, keep up. Check it out on page 16.

It's apropos to offer new services in this issue, the annual feature that covers the RER 100. This year's 100 features a number of companies that haven't been listed before. And while much of the RER 100 is optimistic, sensing the beginning of a recovery that should lead to a strong period of growth in the coming years, success in this changing environment is no slam dunk. The companies that are coming out of recession in good shape are those that changed and innovated and came up with new or improved services. Their success rides on the strength of the changes they made in recent years to operate more efficiently.

Rental companies, small or large, cannot stand pat, any more than manufacturers faced with international competition can. The content of the RER 100 changes from year to year. But certain elements remain constant. Companies willing to examine themselves, re-invent themselves and do what's necessary to run more effectively and remain well aware of how to anticipate and respond to their customers' ever-evolving needs will remain among the industry's giants, year after year. And smaller companies that remain on top of the markets and niches they do business in, must follow the same principles to continually improve.

Interviewing the RER 100 executives, I was impressed to see that many of the companies are tackling the very important issue of rates head on, not by pointing fingers at other companies, but looking for ways to change their own approaches to rates. I didn't hear anybody blaming “the consolidators” as I've heard so often in the past. But a lot of companies were developing solutions to their own low rates, which you can read more about in the cover story on page 28.

It's great to see so many say the change has to begin with themselves because they recognize that their profitability depends on it. While many expect that 2004 will be the year of the big breakthrough in rentals, it may also be the year the rates change because companies set up the structures to make it happen.