Insulate Magazine May 2018

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I suppose the other thing is how innovation has changed
as well in that period of time; we’ve gone from just a
simple wall board to fireline, to duplex insulation and the
move towards integrated systems that work together to
deliver outstanding quality performance.
Another major shift, is the move towards the benefits of
sound insulation. Over the years many houses built suffer
from poor sound insulation, particularly in semi-detached
buildings and apartments.
There are so many different types of insulation to keep
up with the demands of the insulation
market, and it is improving all the
time - and yes there are leaders out
there and we are one of those.
playing Rugby League in Australia. I was flying home
and I told one of the boys to keep a piece of paper for me
from the job advertisements. I phoned up a guy called
Mr Brown and said: “look, I’ve just arrived back in the
UK any chance of an interview?” He answered with:
“sorry mate, all the interviews are done and finished.” I
said: “well look, when is the last day of interviews? He
replied with tomorrow. I said: “right, where do you live?”
To which he said St Ives Cambridge. Having established
that he would have to travel through the Dartford Tunnel
to get home, with about five hours of queues, I suggested
So how would you say the technology
has changed during your time within
your role and within the wider
industry
Well, when I first started we didn’t
have mobile phones we had the phone
box! We’d phone in at the end of the
day to see what was going on, then we
had the ‘brick phone’ and that worked
only in certain areas and then moving
on from there, we had Kalamazoo as a
reporting tool – it was a tick box basically
and then that started evolving.
When I started, we had three calls to
make a day you’d write down what
you had discussed in the car, what
materials the customer was interested
in purchasing and you would just send it in, on a weekly
basis - not every day! The customer wouldn’t necessarily
place an order with you but what they were intending to
order.
Another major shift, is the move towards the benefits of
sound insulation. Over the years many houses built suffer
from poor sound insulation, particularly in semi-detached
buildings and apartments. There are so many different
types of insulation to keep up with the demands of the
insulation market, and it is improving all the time - and
yes there are leaders out there and we are one of those.
In those days the geography was so much smaller; my
first patch was North West London as a Sales Representative.
I got the job actually having come back from
to see him at 4 o’clock, have an interview and see how it
goes. I found out a lot about British Gypsum at the time
and at the end of the interview, he asked if I had anymore
questions to which I said: “When do I start?” And
that was it, that’s how I started. But going back to your
question, it’s gone from those days of having paper and
just writing one or two reports, to now touching a button
with laptops and iPads, and having the sales figures up in
front of you in a nanosecond.
In real time?
Yes real-time. It’s quite incredible how it’s all changed
and who knows what’s going to happen in the next ten
years.
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