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Finding Conscious Capitalism in Unexpected Industries with Larry Baker — Insights from our Community

This guest blog post comes from Larry Baker, President and CEO of Earthwave Technologies and a member of our Senior Leader Network.

How can Conscious Leadership help set a company apart in an industry that isn’t typically thought of as conscious?

The industry my company serves is the construction industry, more specifically the infrastructure and
‘horizontal’ construction industry. Road builders, bridge builders, site development and utility
contractors. It isn’t typically thought of as a ‘conscious’ industry but I am happy to be able to
communicate that this is quite a misconception.

I had the pleasure and opportunity recently to spend four days at the NAPA (National Asphalt Paving
Association) annual meeting.  NAPA is made up of companies ranging from the largest paving and construction companies in the world to smaller ‘mom and pop’ type operations.  This meeting is an annual gathering of leaders in the industry for education, networking and annual awards.

Observing from the lens of CCI and the topic of this article, I was surprised and inspired to find the
industry is pretty well populated with Conscious companies and leaders; they just don’t know it.  Almost
all companies in the industry still operate from a ‘family’ perspective as they all started that way, even if they are now part of a larger corporate structure.  They are very people oriented, their employees are treated like family, and their team members feel valued and cared for as a rule. They also, as a rule,
serve their customers and are committed to delivering a quality product. And finally, most serve their
community in some way. At the meeting there were many references to various examples of
philanthropy.

The theme of the meeting was actually The Road Forward, a campaign for Net Zero Carbon Emissions
for the Asphalt Paving industry, which my company and 24 other have sponsored!

The [construction] industry is led by Conscious Capitalists! They just aren’t familiar yet with the
term nor our great organization!”

So, I am thankful for the opportunity to give a shout out to the construction industry and to let you readers know the truth; the industry is led by Conscious Capitalists! They just aren’t familiar yet with the
term nor our great organization!

Bringing the question back to how Conscious Leadership has set us apart, the CC principles that we have been practicing for years have really separated us from our competitors and enabled us to be the
undisputed leader in the construction technology industry in which we compete.

In our industry it’s all about relationships and we have established long-standing and trusted
relationships with the leading companies in the industry because of our focus on taking care of their needs, one customer and problem at a time. We have video and written testimonials from leaders in the
industry stating that the service they receive from us is the best they have experienced in their careers!
And we do it with a partnership approach that puts our conscious team member front and center,
qualified and committed to go the extra mile (one of our Core Values) to serve our customer.

We are blessed to serve a great conscious industry and spread the tenets and principles of Conscious Capitalism internally and to our market.


Larry Baker is the founder and CEO of Earthwave Technologies, a Construction IoT, SaaS company founded in 2000 and based in Indianapolis, IN. A serial entrepreneur and bootstrapper, Larry has founded three technology companies over the past 35+ years.

Larry is passionate about helping others, in business and in community. His Core Values include a foundation of personal and Spiritual growth, Service, and Purpose. He believes strongly that we are to share our blessings, our resources and our abundance with those that we are in a position to help. Larry is very bullish on Conscious Capitalism and sees Conscious Capitalists as a primary source, catalyst and resource for change in our communities, country and world.

His favorite past-times include meditation, being healthy and spending time with the love of his life, Patty, his wife of 41 years, and Deuce, their 14-yr old Standard Poodle. His interests include philanthropy study/learning, nature, travel, golf, music, teaching and first and most of all, his interest is in God.