Taking the backroads Years ago, I worked for a company that had an office in an industrial/ business park off U.S. 460 just east of downtown Roanoke. Morning drive-in and evening drive-home traffic was rather horrendous then in the early 90s; unfortunately, it still is. Tapping into my own GPS app (which consisted of mental recall from times when I was a teenager driving around anywhere, everywhere, and anytime I could all over our valley and mountains), I figured out a back way to get to work. A lot of twists and turns and unlikely directions. Right up there with navigating to and from Blacksburg on college game day—or getting right on through Salem during the I-81 backed up traffic snarl that hits almost daily now—I was delighted with myself for discovering the secret, new way to work. Total daily drive time was reduced by at least 45 minutes. That’s stress-reduction at its finest. When one takes delight in the smallest improvements. That secret backroad reminds me of today. Our new way to work, with video meetings and remote workers and operations that were turned upside down almost overnight in March of 2020, served as a catalyst for a lot of us finding backroads to business. Some of the changes, brought about without our choice or preference, have turned out to be not so bad. As an old-school guy, I’ve been surprised about the transactions I’ve completed over a video conference. “We’re the kind of business where we MUST meet people face-to-face,” I often chanted to staff for the past 33 years with this journal. “Ours is a market where folks expect to do business in person,” I firmly believed.
ON TAP FROM THE PUB By Tom Field Executive Summary: Indirect routes can have their advantages.
Recent times have proved new ways can work. But again, telephone calls and emails and snail mail… none of those are exactly new. I was setting up the “new” video-over-phone demonstrations back in the late 80s and early 90s at trade shows across the nation that came from developments out of that very office off U.S. 460. The reality is we just changed methods. Okay… “pivot” if you must use the cheugy buzz word. “Nothing is new under the sun,” Ecclesiastes tells us; and… well… ain’t that the truth (I don’t know who said that). I do know those hidden backroads didn’t just pop up overnight. Most of them were there before the new-and-improved faster roads showed up on the map. And strongly preferred by GPS. Check out different routes. In fact, I once heard the advice that a person should take a different direction now and then on their daily commutes just for the sole purpose of keeping your mind sharp or avoiding dull, drum, boredom. And if you find yourself one day going to work in the new technology park being developed right now by Roanoke County at Woodhaven… it looks super convenient smack there at our I-81 / 581 interchange to Roanoke. I’ve got a secret: I know many backroad routes. That was my old stomping grounds as a teenager.
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t NOVEMBER 2021 / vbFRONT.com
