2021 Year in Review: John Finamore, EW Howell Construction Group

Name: John Finamore

Job Title: Director of Business Development

Company Name: EW Howell Construction Group

What are your predictions for your industry in 2022?
Our regional non-residential construction outlook is recovering from 2020 and climbing in both public and private for 2022 and into 2023. Yet many factors can influence the forecasting matrix that will play into reality including: COVID-19 debate/masking and future variants, federal, state and city government infrastructure commitment to NY, inflation in the economy at large, the continued supply chain bottlenecks, material longer lead times, labor and staffing shortages, resulting increasing costs, and other impacting variables. Again, based upon our industry’s resiliency and ability to adapt to changing environments and my 40 years in the industry, I remain with a positive yet realistic outlook for the New York regional A/E/C Industry.

What is the best advice you received in 2021, and who was it from?
The best advice I received was from no one person, but rather the composite of my education, experience and listening to my vast number of colleagues, associates, friends from multi disciplines. This composite effectively yielded the best advice which is, to remain strong, have compassion for others, be open minded, adapt to change, embrace technology as a tool, stay on course, focused, and always raise the bar at every opportunity.

What was the biggest lesson you learned while working during the pandemic?
One of the main lessons learned while working during this unprecedented pandemic were people’s fortitude and the ability to be flexible and resilient. Most of the industry was generally familiar with virtual communication technology prior to the pandemic however the pandemic “forced” us all to ramp up and get more familiar with virtual technology ex: Zoom and MS teams and learn how to “unmute.” As director of business development, it is crucial to maintain solid communication with existing and new clients. I was amazed how well we all adapted in a short period of time to this new modality.

How has your working environment changed over the last year?
Similar to biggest lessons learned, the working environment has changed with many firms still have a percentage of remote workers –this is a new environment. However, as of mid-summer and moreover fall of 2021 we are witnessing and participating in much more in-person client interface and industry networking events. This has been quite refreshing to communicate in-person and attend these industry events. We don’t know how long this will last, especially now with new variants and whether the vaccines will still provide protection, the future will tell.