Last week I attended and participated in two very interesting and important events that gave me a flavor of what’s to come in the flooring industry relative to installation, education and information. On Thursday an INSTALL symposium was held at the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center inNew York City. The purpose of the symposium is to attract Architects, Designers, Facilities Managers and others influential in specifying flooring materials and their installation to an event that provides them training programs with CEU credits and a mini – trade show and installation demonstrations. The first symposium was inDetroitand the next one is scheduled forClevelandthe first week of December. What’s so unique about these INSTALL events is that they have a distinct value for all who attend. The attendees get education and credit that goes toward retaining their certification. They actually learn something, they get to see installation in action of products they specify by the tradesmen that will install it and they get to see flooring products from suppliers they use and some they may not have known about. Nothing like this has ever been done before and certainly not by a trade group that professionally installs the product. These symposiums were the brain child of John McGrath, Director of INSTALL, and there are at least five more of them planned for 2009, so far inNew Jersey,MassachusettsandMichigan. More unique is that manufacturers who sign a resolution with INSTALL to endorse certified and trained installers, and what manufacturer wouldn’t want their product installed they way they say it should be, can exhibit at these symposiums for free. TheNew Yorksymposium had nearly 200 attendees. I saw the VP of Sales for the East Coast for one of the major mills at the airport and he was overwhelmed by the program and the fact that he got at least 6 solid leads from Architects he had never worked with before.
The second event was the Annual Fall meeting of StarNet inKansas City. StarNet members are the cream of the cream and the biggest of the big in commercial floor covering contractors. If there is a big league in the floor covering industry StarNet is it. This meeting also centered on education and information. There were several educational sessions on a variety of topics. I gave two sessions, back to back, titled Challenging Installation Problems and How They Were Solved, covering the problem, the cause and the corrective action.
Even though the commercial flooring business is still fairly strong, it is showing signs of weakening and there isn’t as much work in the pipeline for next year. However, that being said many flooring contractors are having an excellent year. One flooring contractor we worked with last month is booked until 2010. Not all is bleak but this is not the point of this column.
Even with all the bad economic news and the fact that the economy is slowing down you have to invest in your business and one of the least expensive investments is education and training from wherever you can get it. Now is a good time to be making yourself, your employees and your business better and in fact, the best it can be. Don’t be oblivious to the obvious. Ask yourself again, as Peter F. Drucker stated in his book, Tasks, Responsibilities and Practices, “What business am I in and who are my customers?” After you’ve got that answer then you have to determine how best to address the business and the customer. In the case of the INSTALL symposium, for example, this is easy as every manufacturer should sign the resolution and start benefitting from exposure to new business sources and it’s free. Someone else is spending the money to help your business. You have to be nuts not to take advantage of something like this. As for education and training, get it wherever you can for whatever you’re business needs. The economy will adjust after the shock of all our greed settles down but there will be business. The solutions will come from the same place the problems did – the consumer and the marketplace; be ready by being better than you are now.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts