NEWS EXTRA CELEBRATING DIFFERENCE
Jason Mohammed chatted to Paul Elliott, the FA’s director of inclusion and diversity and Kate Tinsley, CEO of MKM, and non-executive director of the FA and came up with some takeaways.
Kate Tinsley: the wheels of change are moving, but they are too slow. That said, you still need to take people with you if you are going to change things. Running to the top of the hill and shouting to everyone to hurry up isn’t how you effect change. You all need to be climbing that hill together.
Paul Elliott: Make things on your terms, even adversity. One day, when I was playing, the first half wasn’t going well and there was a banana thrown onto the pitch at me. At half-time, I walked over, picked up the banana, ate it and threw it back at the offender. The second half was a much better game and when I was interviewed about it, the journalist asked me what happened and I told him that eating the banana with all it’s potassium had made the difference.
Paul Elliott: Difference is good in an organisation. You learn things from having a diverse pool of knowledge. I believe in cognitive diversity, different thinking, different ages, different experiences, different colours, different views on business. When you operate in that collegiate way, that can only lad to better things for your organisation.
Paul Elliott: Education on the issues is key. We don’t want to get to the point where people are scared to laugh, scared to talk to each other because of how what they say might be construed. We all have to go on the journey of learning what is and isn’t acceptable if we are to move on together.
an awareness campaign to raise the profile of the sector. “We will launch our first major national awareness campaign to position the building materials supply as an excellent profession with training and apprenticeships and a range of important roles. It’s a campaign that will be designed to make the sector more attractive, and help you to tackle the skills shortage.
Our aim is to launch this new campaign at the BMF Conference in Istanbul next year.” Supply Chain Collaboration is a new area of focus for the BMF and Newcomb said it is all about forging better links and partnerships between merchants and suppliers to help meet the challenges the building materials supply chain faces. “We have clearly positioned ourselves and standing for the building materials supply sector we have also developed a collaboration strategy that links us to the CLC to make an impact on the issues that matter most to you.” The BMF has set up its first member-driven working group to tackle the issue of single-use pallets and to help deliver a more sustainable solution which is being lead by the Pallett Loop and supported by a wide range of members. There are two more working groups in the pipeline,
October 2022
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
Kate Tinsley: Being open to the idea of increasing diversity in your organisation is the first step and it’s key. For me it’s about how do we create a better future and ensure that the opportunities are there for all regardless of background. Education and training and asking questions if you don’t understand is definitely a start point. Be open to new ideas and new people. It’s easy to recruit people who look like us and sound like us, because there’s an immediate connectivity. A starting point is recognising that someone might not have had the same experiences as you but that their experiences mean they can still bring something valuable to your organisation.
Paul Elliott: My three top tips would be to invest in your community, understand your local demographic, when it comes to recruitment be transparent, open and empower people. Remember when you bring someone in they can become a great role model for others to join you.
Kate Tinsley: Be open to people who look different sound different and think differently to you or to how you expect them to. When I was made CEO of Buildbase, the biggest business in the Grafton Group, the fourth biggest merchant in the country at the age of 37, it was because the board took a chance on me. I didn’t look like what you might expect the CEO of a builders merchant to look like. Be open, take a chance on difference and take action, take positive steps. BMJ
one about product standardisation with the aim of driving the set-up of a universal template for product data for all manufacturers and merchants to work from. The other working group focuses on the area of sustainability. Newcomb said: “All these groups show a deep level of member collaboration which we have never achieved before, a really fantastic example of a role that only the BMF could play in this sector.
“Finally, we will be continuing to exert government influence. I think the BMF’s handling of the pandemic earned us a place at the top table with government through our membership of the CLC; we are working hard to grow our presence, and to have increased resources in this area. We will also continue to build our presence by increasing the number of merchant site visits organised by Brett Amphlett with
MPs over the next few months.” He continued: “There is no doubt that the industry is changing post pandemic and we need to continually helping you to achieve an sustain excellence throughout our industry to and to fully embrace some of the major strategic changes that we’ve touched upon: digitisation, skills and net zero. We should all be incredibly proud of the journey that the BMF has been on over the last 10 years, in particular the last two years during the pandemic We try to work collaboratively, to be one industry with one voice. There is no question in my mind that we will as an industry continue to face significant challenges and changes in a world post covid and post Brexit and eventually, post-Ukraine and post cost of living crisis. I am confident that by working together we can rise to meet these challenges as aspire, innovate and thrive in this fantastic industry.” BMJ
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