issues
Published: 17 July, 2008
This month I was all prepared to write about the need for general and asset managers to seek business experience and marketing acumen. There is a real need for the humble management surveyor to grasp the nettle and drive shopping centres forward. We should be long beyond reactive management, but in a lot of cases I just don't see it in practice.
Anyway, that particular rant will have to wait, because I have a new best friend the industry needs to know about. The friendship is all of 12 hours old as I write this.
His name is Ben Way and he runs an organisation called Rainmaker, but has launched a business called Go Green Plumbing which is truly innovative and outstanding. Even more extraordinary when you discover he only took eight weeks to get the company up and running from concept!
Clearly, tagging into the whole Al Gore, green, pinko-liberal, environmentally aware, rip-off nonsense is good business sense, but the majority are doing it purely for appearance's sake and not to actually make a difference.
For example, EDF offer a green electricity package, but you have to apply for it! If they really had a green agenda, then they would automatically transfer everyone over to the green package and do things properly, for the right reasons. It is this type of cynical approach that I find outrageous, because it clearly demonstrates the low level of regard companies have for true corporate social responsibility.
From this perspective, Ben and Go Green Plumbing are a breath of fresh air - having as they do a genuine green agenda applied fairly and to every customer.
We should all draw inspiration from Ben, and strive to really make a difference and do what's right, for the right reasons - in the right way.
Or to pull a line from the Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams - 'build it and they will come!'
Roger J Southam,
Chairman & Chief Executive, Chainbow,
[http://www.chainbow.co.uk]
