The industry is what it is because our citizens are what they are: remarkable people like Clyde Companies’ LaNette Andrews.

The ready mixed concrete (RMC) industry thrives because of the people who dedicate their careers to it. We are thrilled to launch a new series featuring the true “Citizens of the Industry” whose contributions quietly but materially shape our beloved business. We rely heavily on these professionals to keep operations running smoothly and efficiently.

This month, it is an honor to introduce LaNette Andrews, enterprise program director at Clyde Companies, based in Orem, Utah. She exemplifies the discipline and commitment required to make things actually work. In many ways, she is the human operating system behind RMC innovation. 

Our industry is in the middle of one of its most profound transformations. We talk about automation, digital ecosystems, artificial intelligence (AI) and agentic tools. But beneath all these innovations, quietly determining whether they actually work, is something far more fundamental. That element is the human operating system. Few embody that better than LaNette. 

She didn’t arrive in this industry through a master plan. Like many of us, she found it—and then it found her. What drew her in wasn’t concrete but rather problem-solving, and the intersection of people, process and pressure. It was the realization that this industry, at its core, is a living system where human behavior is just as important as material science.

With a background in psychology and systems thinking, she began to see something early that many miss. The real optimization problem in ready-mix isn’t trucks or routes. It is people operating inside complex, time-constrained systems. 

Trial by fire

LaNette’s first day as a part-time dispatcher wasn’t eased in by training modules or an onboarding plan.

It was chaos. 

She faced a brand-new dispatch system and a struggling dispatcher. A room under pressure. A young LaNette sat beside it, observing—not yet participating but learning something critical about how people react when systems change. It did not go smoothly, and she was even asked to leave by the dispatcher. That moment could have ended the story, but instead, it defined it.

She came back, built relationships, and learned from drivers who became mentors. She began to understand dispatch as a real-time optimization engine powered by humans and under constant fire. As one supervisor put it, a dispatcher sits in a glass building while everyone takes shots at them. That perspective stays with you. 

From operator to architect

As LaNette’s career progressed from dispatcher to business process leader to enterprise-level contributor, something became clear. Technology alone doesn’t solve problems. Translation does.

When a major system upgrade at Clyde Companies’ Geneva Rock Products created friction for the ready mixed producer, LaNette was pulled into a role she hadn’t planned for: bridging operations and technology. She spent half her day in dispatch and the other half fixing the system, which is where the real work happens.

Instead of starting with system features, she focused on operational pain points. She gathered every issue, prioritized what mattered, coordinated relentlessly, and delivered measurable improvement. Within six months, the results spoke for themselves and her role expanded. The impact scaled. Soon, a pattern emerged: start where it hurts most, fix what matters, and build trust along the way. 

LaNette has lived through multiple technology waves—from early dispatch systems to Software as a Service (SaaS) to today’s AI-driven environment. Her perspective on where we are now is both optimistic and grounded.

“We are moving incredibility fast—faster than SaaS and possibly as fast as the internet itself,” says LaNette. “That rapid pace is exciting yet also risky because anyone can now build enterprise tools with AI, and that leads to simultaneous dangers.”

The two simultaneous dangers she notes are (1) falling behind through inaction and (2) building without alignment through chaotic action. Both are real, both are happening, and neither leads to a stable operating model.

The discipline of focus

When you operate across multiple teams, departments and initiatives, there’s a subtle danger of belonging everywhere yet nowhere. Think of quantum superposition or Schrödinger’s cat. LaNette has lived that tension, and her solution is deceptively simple:

• Go back to the work.
• Go back to the objective.
• Filter out the noise. 

This disciplined mindset, as she describes it, creates a kind of safe place of focus rather than avoidance. In an industry filled with competing priorities, that clarity is rare.

Leadership that scales

Ask LaNette today how she defines success, and her answer has evolved. She says it’s no longer about solving the problem herself but about building people who can. This means developing leaders, encouraging growth, and creating teams that function and thrive without dependency. She knows her shift from operator to multiplier is one of the most important transitions any leader can make. It’s one of the cornerstones that our real-time, perishable and structurally critical industry relies on. And it’s one that our industry needs more of.

For the next generation—especially those coming through programs like the Concrete Industry Management (CIM) college degree program—her guidance is refreshingly direct.

“Choose an industry you actually care about and align with companies that match your values,” says LaNette. “Stay curious and lead with empathy.”

Above all, she advises not to get defensive when issues arise. Every complaint, every conflict, and every point of friction is an opportunity to learn, not defend. 

Technology still needs people

We can build better systems, deploy AI and automate decisions, but none of that will work without people who understand how it all comes together under pressure. These systems operate in real environments and with real consequences. LaNette doesn’t just adopt technology and manage change. She ensures that what gets built actually works for the teams, the industry and the future.  

In a time when the pace of change is only accelerating, that may be the most important contribution of all.