Creative destruction: The future of innovation

By Dani Sheehan. 

Explore how manufacturers can stay ahead in the roofing industry through continuous innovation and the creative destruction of their own products. 

In Season 6, Episode 3 of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Greg Hudson from Georgia-Pacific Building Products during last year’s National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) fall meetings. They explored anticipated trends for 2024 and the importance of innovation in the construction industry, particularly for manufacturers. Using one Georgia-Pacific cover board product as an example, Greg defined “creative destruction” and how this core value of his company drives innovation in roofing. 

Greg began the conversation by sharing his perspective on innovation: “I see it as a great opportunity as a manufacturer to innovate. We call it creative destruction at our company. It’s one of our core values. And if you’re not creatively destroying your own products, the market will. And when the market does, you don’t get to participate at the same level.” He named several examples of companies failing to innovate throughout the years, including Blockbuster, Nokia, Kodak and Blackberry. Greg elaborated, “Kodak had a ton of patents on digital photography, but just locked them up and never used [the patents]. And now you think about that compared to what we did with photos and everything and Kodak was the brand. And now it’s an afterthought. It’s gone.” 

When you are the leader in the industry, it becomes a responsibility to continue creating products that keep you ahead. If you stop, you risk becoming like Kodak – once a symbol of innovation, now an afterthought. Georgia-Pacific currently leads the industry in cover boards and overall roof protection. Greg used one of the company’s severe hail products, DensDeck® StormX™ Prime Roof Board, as an example. This product has been on the market over three years now and was specifically designed for very severe hail regions. 

Greg continued, “What we are seeing now is more people want that product just for its robustness outside of the very severe hail. And that goes a long way. Being able to work with all these great system manufacturers out there on ensuring that a component like that in their system performs to the standards that’s needed has been a great opportunity for us.” 

Being a market leader is an achievement, but seeing your product expand its reach and improve industry standards is even greater. Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn other sustainable ways to stand out from the competition.