On Friday, December 9th, 2011 MDG was honored to be recognized at the 2011 Small Business of the Year luncheon.  The award is presented by Business NC Magazine and sponsored by BB&T Bank.  The luncheon was held at the Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston Salem, NC.  The luncheon was wonderful and the Graylyn is an amazing place.  The staff of MDG would like to thank Business NC Magazine and BB&T for honoring our firm as a runner-up for this prestigious award.  Congratulations to Shane Cooper and DeFeet International for being awarded the top spot as Small Business of the Year and to Rhino Assembly Corporation and Something Classic Corporation for being recognized as runners-up as well.  The guest speakers included Mr. Mark Edwards of BB&T Bank,  Mr. Dale B. Carroll, Deputy Secretary of the NC Department of Commerce and last year’s winner Mr. Doug Salkewicz, President of Advanced Technical Welding.

The article about MDG can be read at the following link-MercerDesignWriteUp or, along with all of the write-ups at the Business NC website.

As Principal Engineer of MDG, I would like to take a moment to thank all of our staff for their hard work and determination.  It is their efforts that have truly earned MDG this award.  The magazine article gives insight into the struggles of the firm over the past few years while the economy has been down (to say the least).  The determination of our staff is a key factor in our continued success.  While the journey detailed was arduous and difficult, the rest of the story is even better.  I was able to confidently tell our client that we could take on their project and meet such a tight deadline because I knew the staff I had behind me.  I already knew the outcome, it was a great feeling.  We started to work on this project in late January 2010, had all permits in hand and broke ground in April 2010 and both horizontal and vertical construction were completed in June 2011.  Thats 112 units on 11.5 acres, all permits in hand in three months and finished construction in just over a year.  It is true that as design engineers we do not actually build anything.  However, when a project of this size is moving this quickly, the engineer has to be there when his client calls.  In these situations, correct answers are needed immediately and changes to the design are needed in hand the next day.  Waiting on your engineer to “figure it out” doesn’t cut it.  While this project was going on, the MDG team designed, permitted and started construction on three other sites with an additional 340 units for this same client as well as completed numerous other private, municipal and industrial projects throughout the state.  This level of performance is our normal operational tempo and has been since our inception.  Our team just rocks and I am proud to serve as their leader.

So the story continues.  2010 turned out to be a good year for MDG.  2011 has been good but as the construction industry is still struggling so are we.  What does 2012 hold?  Who knows?  What I do know is, MDG will be there providing exceptional service and assisting our clients in being, not only successful, but profitable.  The question is, will you be part of that team or will you be wishing you were?  You Need To Know Us!

-Marvin