business focus 31


The all-round approach to waste and recycling


From multi-storey office buildings to small industrial workshops and major manufacturing facilities, waste is something that all businesses have to deal with


All too often however, it is seen in isolation – paper and cardboard is collected by one company, hazardous waste dealt with by a 'specialist' organisation, and general commercial waste by yet another.


On top of that, someone – usually the facilities manager – has to stay on top of Environment Agency legislation to ensure compliance at all levels.


Bradley Smith, sales and marketing director at Grundon Waste Management, says there is a much smarter and more cost-effective solution to handling waste and ensuring that recycling and reprocessing is pushed up the agenda.


“Streamlining your waste collection services under one roof makes much better sense, not least because it enables you to develop a bespoke service to ensure your waste is collected when it suits you – not the supplier,” he said.


“At the same time, you can be confident that the right waste management company will be completely conversant with all the necessary legislation and compliance issues, helping your business to avoid both the financial or reputational risk of getting it wrong.”


In addition, says Smith, when it comes to budget time, dealing with one supplier makes it much easier to gather audit trails and statistics which can demonstrate the savings achieved by investing in smarter waste management, for example by diverting waste away from landfill and into energy from waste facilities.


Streamlining collections can reduce paperwork, cut down on the number of vehicle movements which is, of course, good for the environment, and it also allows a single point of contact for all waste management needs.


This partnership approach can also help companies take advantage of innovative new solutions, such as


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2015 Bradley Smith


the recent food waste collection service recently introduced by Grundon. This sees segregated food waste sent to anaerobic digestion facilities, away from landfill, where it is used to generate renewable energy and create bio-fertiliser.


Smith says as the issue of food waste climbs higher up the agenda, more and more organisations with canteens or in-house catering facilities are beginning to take the topic more seriously and are taking advantage of the food waste collection service.


Other simple to implement ideas include a Haz-Box container, small enough to fit inside a cupboard or under a desk, and ideal for disposing of old aerosols, cleaning fluids and other chemicals; while corridor boxes encourage employees to separate out paper and cardboard for recycling from mixed waste.


“At Grundon, we’re great believers in working closely with our customers and we find the more we can do to help them raise the profile of recycling within their organisation, the better the results that can be achieved,” concluded Smith.


Details: Bradley Smith info@grundon.com 01753-686777 www.grundon.com


Growing sales fixes everything


It was Guy Kawasaki, former Apple evangelist and founder of Garage Technology Ventures in Silicon Valley, who said that growing sales fixes everything. This is true and sales growth provides the basis for a sustainable business


Every medium-sized business wants to grow sales, but the reality is that high proportions do not succeed, for a variety of reasons. These can be internal such as lack of planning or focus; and external caused by perhaps strong competition or difficulty in accessing finance to stimulate growth.


The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills’ report on SMEs: The Key Enablers of Business Success and the Economic Rationale for Government Intervention (December 2013) highlights that almost half of all SMEs don’t plan. When you consider that an important driver to success is building a sales strategy, then this is a cause for concern.


A recent poll of SMEs attending a forum hosted by Henley Business School identified sales growth as a key challenge and that having a sales strategy was considered important to the majority of SMEs.


Sales growth is delivered by a well-defined and executed sales strategy.


Recent studies have suggested that organisations with sales in the range £2m – £10m find


it difficult to break through this range and those that do represent a small percentage of the total. Companies with sales in this range, in particular (but not excluding those with higher or lower sales), are looking for growth in sales. Of course, in the absence of sales growth life becomes a challenge for SMEs, particularly if they have invested in infrastructure in anticipation of a growth in sales.


The question is, in the face of an ever-changing business environment how does the SME deliver sales growth? The answer is a combination of things: most importantly having a robust customer-driven sales strategy and executing it well; a well-trained sales operation; and sales-focused leadership and management practices.


So driving sales activities and delivering sales growth are key to the success of all organisations – large and small. To be as effective as you can, requires work and analysis around the use of technology, understanding the effectiveness of different customer acquisition channels, the value you really add and not least how to build your sales skills.


Henley has developed a new short programme specifically addressing these issues – Winning and Developing Customers – scheduled to start at the end of October.


Details: Diana Richards exec@henley.ac.uk 01491-418767 www.henley.ac.uk/open


Follow us on twitter: @HenleyExecEd


www.businessmag.co.uk


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