When was the last time you witnessed a "Real Innovation" in the natural stone industry? I don't mean a better mousetrap type of development like a newer diamond blade with taller segments that cut stone faster.

I am talking about a revolutionary change that has the potential to create a new convention. How long has it been since we saw this kind of innovation in the dimensional stone industry? Looking back on my 30+ years in this industry, the last time I saw this type of innovation was when we were introduced to "diamonds" for cutting, grinding, shaping and polishing. Back in 1954 Tracy Hall of General Electric (GE) successfully synthesized a synthetic diamond made out of carbon. This discovery paved the way to the modern industrial (synthetic) diamond industry. Today industrial diamonds are used extensively in all kinds of manufacturing, not just the natural stone industry.

I remember being introduced to the diamond revolution in the early 1980s while attending an MIA convention. The MIA had a presentation by a scientist from GE Superabrasives explaining in great detail how industrial diamonds are made, how they function and how to get the best performance from them. Following this presentation were speakers talking about how these industrial diamonds were being compounded into grinding cup wheels and polishing pads.

I remember the first time a sales rep demonstrated "wet polishing" in my shop and how we all laughed and said that wet polishing would never replace dry grinding and sanding. Of course we know the "rest of the story." Wet polishing is here to stay, and further developments have greatly improved the performance, price and ease of use to make wet polishing the industry standard.

Over the past three decades we have seen new products and processes introduced that have offered new applications in the tile and stone industries and I suppose you could characterize the modern "quartz" countertop industry as a modest innovation, but "quartz" has not revolutionized our industry quite yet. There will forever remain a large segment of the buyers preferring "natural stone" over manufactured stone for homes and commercial surfaces.

Author Hugh Dubberly in his work entitled Toward a Model of Innovation says this about innovation: "We rarely recognize innovation while it's happening. Instead, innovation is often a label applied after the fact, when the results are clear and the new convention has been established."

I believe we just may look back on the introduction of ForzaStone and come to the assessment that this is a dramatic innovation and I trust it will become a new convention in both the tile and slab industries.

I recently took a trip to Phoenix to learn more about ForzaStone and had the pleasure of meeting two of the principals, Curtis Ray and Geoff Habicht while learning more of the nexus of ForzaStone and thin stone panels. Of course thin stone has been around for more than 40 years in various forms, yet in larger panels or slabs was prohibitively expensive to make and failed to make it into the mainstream. ForzaStone seems to have solved this problem and, in doing so, has done it in a most unconventional way.

As you might imagine, many innovations, inventions and revolutionary products often are developed within the industry by seasoned professionals with decades of experience to draw from. Not so with ForzaStone. Curtis Ray entered the stone industry while also trying to maintain a hectic schedule as a student athlete at Arizona State University. Curtis brokered a deal to bring in pre-fabricated kitchen counters just as the housing boom was erupting in Phoenix in 2004.

He managed to have all the panels (countertops) sold from his first container as it was enroute from China. As customers were waiting for their order to arrive, Curtis also discovered they needed to be installed. This launched Curtis Ray full-time into the granite install and eventually fabrication business.

While working for several years with vendors in China, Curtis wondered why thin slabs had not made it into the stone industry. He started working with one of his suppliers to develop various "thin stone" panels, first starting with granite. After 8 months of experimenting on hundreds of slabs, Curtis had developed a 96 x 60 granite panel.

As he sat captive in his airplane seat for 14 hours on the way back from China, the choice of stone colors seemed overwhelming. He thought about the popularity of travertine in the Arizona market and eventually realized that by keeping it simple with just a few travertine colors, he would introduce modern technology to an already wildly popular material that homeowners and designers were familiar with.

Working with his supplier in China and his business partners in America (Jarrod Streng and Geoff Habicht), Curtis developed many prototypes and perfected the manufacturing techniques, and recently introduced ForzaStone to the stone industry at Coverings, in January 2011.

What I find incredible is that this innovation did not come through a network of established and seasoned "professionals" or an industry leading company conducting extensive research and development, but rather from a group of relative "outsiders" to the dimensional stone industry. Perhaps the dimension stone industry was so inwardly focused and locked into the traditional conventions that they could not think "beyond the slab." These innovative thinkers have launched an exciting product that has the potential to revolutionize a large segment of our industry.

What makes ForzaStone so attractive to me as a stone importer and distributor is that it is truly a "crossover" product that can be used by both slab fabricator-installers and tile contractors. The ease of cutting and installation has great potential for both types of contractors to turn more projects each week, month and year thus generating more profit.

The lightweight panels are easy to handle and take up little room in a crowded warehouse or stock room. And of course for homeowners, there is no grout to clean.

There are many applications where ForzaStone panels can be installed in addition to shower panels where lightweight and ease of installation are important. Motel room renovations can utilize these panels, easily going over tile tub surrounds without any demolition, thus avoiding dust and noise issues. A trained crew could easily install ten tub surrounds a day with minimal disruption to guests. Wainscot panels can be incorporated into commercial environments as well.

In time, creative designers and installers will find countless applications where ForzaStone lightweight panels will be installed because, as Curtis Ray says, "It just makes sense." This just may introduce a new convention into the dimensional stone industry that will change the way we look at shower installations forever.

Keep your eyes on this company as they continue to offer a truly unique and greatly needed product to the crowded tile and slab industry. It is exciting to see these relative newcomers bringing in such a potential paradigm shifting product to our industry. I'm sure there will be more to come with ForzaStone in the near future.

Torin Dixon is owner and director of Montana Stone Gallery, an importer and distributor of stone slabs in Missoula, Montana. Contact him at tdixon@montanastonegallery.com

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