ENR's 2005 Award of Excellence Winner - Dwayne Mcaninch
Inside a small conference room in West Des Moines, Iowa, a high-tech showdown was taking place. At one end of the table sat engineers from the world’s largest equipment builder. At the other end sat engineers from a major supplier of surveying gear. The two groups were locked in a high-stakes fight over technology potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars in future revenue. Stuck in the middle was Dwayne McAninch, the humble referee. “I’m not interested in being a hot dog,” he says.
An earthmoving contractor from southern Iowa, McAninch brought order to the confusion that Caterpillar Inc. and Trimble Navigation Ltd. faced when they co-developed groundbreaking technology designed to automate the repetitive earthmoving business. Eager to explore the possibilities, the chairman and CEO of McAninch Corp. helped them focus on what the customer really needed and convinced the equipment and technology giants to retool designs and test prototypes on his equipment in the field. After pioneering its use on earthmoving projects, McAninch set out on a quest to teach the construction industry about the benefits of digital grading controls, while the two former competitors went on to form a lucrative partnership.