NEWS EXTRA
the Cabinet Office and by the whole industry. “There may be little we can do about some of the global and national shortage that we see, but it is massively helpful to have a comprehensive clear view of where we are with construction material across the industry. It may be a little odd that we didn’t have this in place before, but we are in a better place as a result of it.”
The challenges that we face as an industry now are exactly the same challenges that we had pre-Covid, Mitchell added. “These are net-zero, building safety and people and skills. A lot has to change in this industry and in our built environment if we are to achieve net zero, and a lot has to change if we are to make existing buildings as safe as they should be, and to make sure that the new building we build are designed for safe use with the right materials and put together in the right way. “We continue to push the government to recognise the need for a national retrofit strategy and we are a little disappointed that we didn’t see more clarity around that in the Spending Review.”
Mitchell highlighted the work of the CLC’s Net Zero Business champions, several of whom are BMF Members. The whole point of being a Business Champion, he said, is that companies are clear about what they are trying to achieve, but they also need to be prepared to open that up and share it so that everyone else can benefit from it. “We all have to do this together. “It is inevitable that that will have to have profound changes around the materials that we us. There may be materials that haven’t as yet been used in construction, there may even be materials that don’t exist yet, that we need to be talking about and using in the future. I think we can all see that we have monumental revolution coming in this industry with the materials that we use.” BMJ
TWELVE
INDUSTRY FORUM
Peter Hallitt is trading director of Marshalls plc.
One of the biggest challenges from the
beginning of the first lockdown was how to work out what was and what wasn’t ‘essential’, Hallitt said. “People with an extension that was half open to the weather - does that count as essential work or not? It was really quite hard as a manufacturer to know what to do. We decide that we were going to stay open. From that day we never missed a beat. Then the sun came out and there was a huge upsurge in RMI and paint was out of stock and plaster. Landscaping and everything to do with the home was in massive demand. People had money; they weren’t able to spend elsewhere so they wanted t spend it on their homes. This again brought massive stress to our organisation with customers asking ‘where’s my product’, ‘when can I get my product’, overwhelming customer service and branches.” The market outlook has improved but, Hallitt said, it does still contain a few risks. “Having sufficient capacity to install is a huge risk going forward. We still have restriction on supply of products so that’s a risk. Then of course there’s inflation and that could slow us down. Finally, there’s cash: growth requires cash. You cannot grow a market or a business without cash because you generally need to buy before you sell and that stretches your cash ability.” BMJ
LEADERSHIP
TAKE-AWAYS Nicky Moffett was the highest-ranking woman in the British Army from 2009 until 2012. She used her experience in the Army to talk to the Conference about the challenges of leadership.
1 Operational success is all about being successful in terms of your mission. 2 I like necessary changes. I don’t like change that doesn’t seem to me to be important or relevant or necessary. 3 How would your people view you as a leader? Are you enabling all of your people, individuals and teams or is there something that you’re doing perhaps that is in some way? 4 Embed your core values and your shared identity 5 Think about the people you are leading. Maybe they aren’t as quick or as articulate, or maybe don’t process things in the same way as others. Maybe they approach change in a different way. Do you therefore need to spend more time bringing them on board, engaging with them and getting them to the place where you know they can deliver their best. 6 How do you take very diverse and different individuals, who may be operating in really, really challenging conditions, whether that’s environmentally or operationally and get those individuals to work effectively together as a cohesive team? 7 Ensure your team understands what is Mission Critical. What the right output actually looks like. 8 Leadership is not about rank and it’s not about status, and it’s not about position. It’s about displaying a set of attributes and behaviours that have an impact on other people. And if we get those things right, then not only do we create that impact further down organisation, but we also hopefully achieve better outcomes in terms of operational success. 9 Example is a powerful thing. People replicate the actions and the behaviours of the people that they look up to and aspire to. And therefore if I want a culture that reflects my values, then I’ve got to make sure that I’m living those values 10 Say thank you and give credit where it’s due. 11 Leadership is everyone’s business very single experience that you have as an individual, every single perspective that you have or insight that you have the contacts that you have all of those things add value to the organisation. 12 Create clarity in roles and expectations. Knowing the reason why you are being asked to do something is the essence of empowerment.
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2021
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