At Simpson Strong-Tie, social impact and responsibility have been a cornerstone of our business philosophy from the very beginning. This philosophy is embodied most explicitly in our Company Values, which we’ve taken directly from the “Nine Principles of Business” laid down by Barclay Simpson. From “Long-Range View” and “Be the Leader” to “Give Back” and “Everybody Matters,” these are values we take pride in and that we use to help guide our business actions and decisions. We like to think that they help distinguish us as a company and make us who we are.
Like a surprising number of my teammates, I had no construction or manufacturing experience when I interviewed here. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of Simpson Strong-Tie before I was told their marketing department was looking for a copy editor. But after I read a little bit about the company on its website and talked to a few of the employees, I knew almost immediately I could be at home here.
Over the last decade — in outlets reaching from construction industry journals to the Boston Globe and the Economist; from CNN and Fast Company to Popular Mechanics; to Nautilus and TED talks — we’ve been hearing increasingly about mass timber and related phenomena: “CLT,” big wood, tall wood, tall timber, timber towers, ply-rises, plyscrapers, ply in the sky, super-ply, Brobdingnagian boards, and all manner of engineered arboreal futures.