“You can’t win a prize unless you buy a ticket” was a constant refrain from one of my associates way back. I used to just brush it off, but nowadays find myself saying exactly the same thing. While this is a sure sign of age and the inevitable preaching technique that really gets right up the nose of younger colleagues, I can’t stop myself from saying it, because it’s so true.
I do quite a few interviews for TTJ, focusing on characters within the timber industry and during one recent meeting I was being told very clearly how we need to invest year after year, otherwise we’ll just continue to lose share, as a group of companies or an entire industry sector. The ‘raffle ticket’ example was duly expounded and I smiled appropriately as we moved onto another topic.
Having left the meeting I continued to puzzle over this point, because I totally agreed with him – the timber industry is fairly poor on investment; of people, training, equipment, and especially research.
Then a couple of months back, I attended the Wood for Gold briefing that was our chance to show how interested we all are in winning timber business during the construction of the 2012 facilities. Well, about 30 of us were interested and from that I suppose the rest of the industry sees it as a bit of a waste of time – or is it just the same old apathy and lack of investment that I’d been told about?
We were told, in no uncertain terms by Dr Peter Bonfield, the Olympic Delivery Authority‘s construction products leader, that timber will have to fight its own corner – he also made it crystal clear that only chain of custody materials will do.
So, this time the timber industry is in really hot water, because it’s going to have to do the unthinkable – it’s going to need to buy two raffle tickets – one to get a chance to supply timber and another to prove its credentials.
Call me cynical, but unless we change our current attitude, timber will be the also-ran, limping in at the back. We have to think well beyond our usual perspective, dig deep and go beyond the pain barrier to win the medals our industry and its future members deserve.
