10 Questions with... James White
Each month we ask a cleaning industry professional the
Tomorrow’s Cleaning 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to James White, Managing Director at Denis Rawlins Ltd.
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WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB? When I left school, I trained as a site engineer: my
first role was as a progress chaser for a national building company working on new council housing estates.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE CLEANING INDUSTRY? My company started importing janitorial products in
Europe from the USA in 1992. Our big product success at that time was a new industrial hand cleaning wipe called Scrubs-in-Bucket.
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WHICH THREE WORDS DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Tenacious, caring, adventurous.
IF YOU COULD VISIT ONE PLACE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHY?
Any mountain on a sunny day. My next big adventure is the GR20 in Corsica with my wife Amanda and our Jack Russell, Ron.
listen with the sole objective of getting your point across. 7
IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY TOMORROW, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND YOUR FORTUNE?
First, I would make sure my family and loved ones were secure, then I would find the best way to invest so the remainder could be used for charity. We run a charity school in Zambia with 1300 pupils. Helping to fund more projects at home and abroad would be a great use of a windfall.
8 9
IF YOU COULD HOST A DINNER PARTY AND INVITE ANY PEOPLE, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD THEY
BE AND WHY? Wilfred Thesiger, explorer and writer to talk about his adventures especially his trip across the empty quarter; Brian Cox to get an update on all things from cosmology; and my uncle Francis as I never got to know him how I would have liked to.
WHAT, DO YOU THINK, IS THE FUTURE OF THE CLEANING INDUSTRY?
The future looks great if we make it more professional. We have the opportunity of a lifetime to make the cleaning industry one of the most important in the world. Let’s make it a profession and something for all of us to be extremely proud of. We mustn’t slip back into a race to the bottom. The industry has been given a massive step-up, it’s now up to us to take advantage and make it an industry the younger generation is attracted to, and wants to be involved in.
Alex Thompson, Managing Director at Solupak Ltd, asks: 10 5
HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE CLEANING INDUSTRY?
By getting it recognised as a respected profession. Perhaps we need all the cleaning associations like ISSA, CSSA, BCC and WCEC etc, to get together and come up with solutions. Presently there’s little or no cost of entry, very little regulation and few standards in our industry. What would it take for a cleaning operative to be viewed with the same respect as a nurse or a teacher?
6
IF AN INTERN WERE TO START TOMORROW, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE THEM?
Listen intently, as if you had to translate the information and repeat back its meaning in a way that the other person feels that you’ve completely grasped it. Don’t
60 | 10 QUESTIONS
HOW DO WE MAKE SURE ADVERTISING AND PERFORMANCE CLAIMS ARE HELPFUL TO THE
CUSTOMER, ALLOWING THEM TO MAKE INFORMED SELECTIONS? Backup claims with evidence, both laboratory testing and more importantly real-world testing. Work with the UK authorities to bring our own regulations up to date so that new technological advances can be measured and quantified under an agreed British Standard. Messaging should also educate the market that product application and process used is of most importance: even the best product in the world, used incorrectly, is likely to fail.
www.rawlins.co.uk
Check out next month’s issue to see what James asked our next industry professional...
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