[ Interview: Diane Johnson ]
businesses that employ women. In the domestic market, for example, there is untapped demand for women electricians from women who would prefer a female rather than a male electrician in their home. That’s a significant potential market, especially for certain ethnic minorities, where this could be a sensitive issue. Similarly, some local authorities and so on could be attracted by such services from their electrical contractors. It could be a competitive advantage to have women in your business. And, once you get women in, and they can see that this
can work for them, you will get them creating their own businesses, and the effect will be to bring more women in. We certainly don’t offer enough at the moment for them – they see that there are too many barriers.
Do you think it’s a bigger challenge for you to make a mark, being the first woman president of the ECA?
I actually don’t see it as a big challenge. And the reason is I’ve never been made to feel any different. The ECA isn’t an old boys’ club. Nobody has ever said ‘Oh well she’s a woman’ – I’ve never been treated like that. I’ve been right through the ECA from branch level, I’ve sat on council, I was a director of the Sector Skills Council for SummitSkills, so I know how the whole structure works – and at no time have I ever had a barrier put in front of me. Do you know what the main thing is? That I’m a contractor.
It doesn’t matter that I’m a woman. If I was somebody who came from outside the industry, who had nothing to do with a live business, I wouldn’t get the respect I get. What affects others in this industry affects me. If I don’t get
paid, then my business struggles. If we don’t train, we don’t prepare for the future. If I don’t read a contract properly, I can be stitched up. What happens to them happens to me. So when I go out and talk to a contractor, regardless of size, I can actually say: ‘I am doing the job. I know what’s happening. I know what’s happening in the workplace, I know what the climate’s like.’ Because it’s my livelihood, too.
What’s your vision for the ECA?
The ECA is changing. We have been what I call a sleeping giant. I now see myself as facilitating, encouraging an environment in which the ECA deputy chief executive, Steve Bratt and his team can review the association’s governance structure and strategic direction to ensure we embrace the future with the most attractive portfolio of services possible. We‘ve always had good services but we’ve never communicated them in the way we could have. The ECA was good before the recession. But we’ve looked
at ourselves and thought there’s a lot more that we can do for companies that we have already on the shelf – they just weren’t aware of it. Believe it or not, even in this climate we are still growing our membership. Because people are starting to see that there is a real benefit from being a part of the Electrical Contractors’ Association. People want value for money. There is so much value you can get from being in the ECA,
and we’re there to promote member companies. We’re there to promote to government how good the electrical industry is. And to work with our partners across related building services sectors. We’ve got to look to where we can talk to government,
possibly help with policy making in order to make things better for our sector. And for our members, there are a lot of things we do that we have to communicate. What I want in the future is that no matter what a company needs – information, technical advice, legal advice, whatever – we’re automatically their one-stop shop. I want everybody to know that the ECA is the electrical trade
association, and if they get an ECA contractor, they’re not just getting someone who’s competent, they know they’re getting the best in the industry. That’s our message to manufacturers, distributors, client specifiers and everybody in the industry.
What other changes would you like to see?
There are many things I’d like to wish for, but one thing I’d
What I want in the future is that no
matter what a company needs – information, technical advice, legal advice, whatever – we’re
automatically their one-stop shop
Summer 2010 ECA Today 31
Important questions... Diane Johnson explains to ECA Today editor Phil Lattimore how she intends to address the key issues facing the electrical industry.
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