10 QUESTIONS WITH...
Each month, we ask a flooring industry professional 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Mark Bushell, TM Manager - Flooring and Refurbishment, Sika.
The negatives are two-fold, which makes delivery of these new systems difficult; cowboy contractors coupled with an attitude that everything has to be done as cheaply as possible.
Q4 Q1
What was your first job? After leaving university as a
chemical engineer, I quickly decided that I did not want to work on the same chemical plant day after day. I therefore started with British Gas on their sales side as an industrial gas sales engineer.
Q2
How did you get into the flooring industry?
I started with Sika Limited in 1993 within the Engineered Refurbishment team selling exciting new technologies of the time like the use of small carbon fibre strips to strengthen bridges. At the time Sika Limited was very small within the resin flooring market although one of the market leaders within Europe. I suppose I sort of fell into flooring, initially being asked to sell flooring as an area sales manager, to leading a team to now being responsible for all of Sika Limited’s UK flooring business.
Q3
What do you think are the positives and
negatives of the flooring trade? With all the new technologies that are now coming through as a result of extensive R&D work, resin flooring is now breaking out of its traditional ‘boring’ industrial sector into a whole new world or creation.
50 | 10 QUESTIONS Q5
If you could hire any one person to be part
of your team, who would it be
and why? Claudio Ranieri. Because he is available! Even though he got sacked by Leicester City FC this year, anyone who can motivate what is a second- rate football team by anyone’s standards to win the Premier League title has to be special.
What’s the best advice you could
give to someone new
coming into the industry? Especially for the young, flooring can seem boring and hard work compared with many other options. However, the industry needs young blood and if you look beyond the surface there are opportunities for everybody.
Q6
If you could invent any product what
would it be and why? A resin flooring system that never wears out and has a design and profile that can be changed at the flick of a switch. We need to think of ways that enable us not to keep disposing of floors and other finishes when they are either at the end of their life or we are bored of them as fashions have changed.
Q7
If you could have a dinner party with any
three people, dead or alive, who
would they be and why? My first guest would be Peter Wheeler, owner of TVR from 1981 to 2004. I would like to ask him what motivated him to produce a car that broke all the rules of the day, scraped to remain profitable only to sell it to someone who would ruin it within two years.
Q8
What do you think the future holds for
the flooring industry? I think the future is great and exciting as new technologies come onto the market. Especially those associated with resin flooring.
Q9
What would you like to see in a future issue of
Tomorrow’s Contract Floors? More exposure of the resin flooring industry.
Q10
Claire O’Brien, Head of Design,
British Ceramic Tile, asked: “If you could swap roles with someone in the industry, who
would it be and why?” I wouldn’t! I love what I do and the team I do it with.
Check out next month’s issue to see what Mark asked our next industry professional…
www.sika.com www.tomorrowscontractfloors.com
I’d also invite Michael Schumacher and would like to ask him how he has coped with the accident that has changed his life. Finally, I’d have James Dyson at my dinner table. As an inspired inventor who has been able to transfer his inventions into a successful business environment, I would like to ask him for any tips!
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