BOCA RATON, FL — Before getting into his topic of discussion at the recent Sheet Metal and Air Condi-tioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA) convention, Tom Mikulina referenced a popular book from the 1970s, Future Shock. The vice president of industry relations for The Trane Company, Worldwide Applied Systems Group, couldn’t help but introduce to his audience of service contractors what author Alvin Toffler predicted in his book more than 20 years ago.
“He [Toffler] said that the rate of change is going to be exponential in the future,” said Mikulina. “I think he’d be boggled by the rate of change right now, the acceleration of change.”