Some of you must wonder what global business really means to people in Wooster, Ohio, or Paducah, Ky. - and, does it really play in Peoria? So, when I found this little tidbit, I had to share:

Question:What is the truest definition of globalization?

Answer:Princess Diana’s death.

Question:Why?

Answer:An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles; treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by a wannabe Irishman, using American Bill Gates’ technology, and you’re probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian truck drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by illegal aliens.

That, my friends, is globalization in a broad sense.

In HVAC, globalization isn’t quite as convoluted, but there are a few parallels. For instance, did you know that most manufacturers use many of the same components? Not a big surprise, one of the largest compressor manufacturing companies happens to cover a lot of ground.

The private labeling craze among many contractors is not the only behind-the-scenes assembly going on. Some lesser-known HVAC manufacturing companies such as Morrison Products make a lot of blowers for a lot of furnaces, Heatcraft builds a lot of coils, and, I wonder where all those thermostats are coming from?

It’s a great big world out there, but it’s always getting smaller.