Sarnafil self-help: 'Life in a maze’ parable teaches a timely lesson for installers

Some of you will be familiar with bestselling book, ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ by Spencer Johnson, a quick but insightful read on dealing with change. Johnson’s modern day parable illustrates the problems we feel when faced with change. Two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people, Hem and Haw, exist in a maze where they all live complacently off a large store of cheese.

One day they discover the cheese store is depleted. The mice react quickly and simply, and go back out into the maze to search for new cheese. In contrast, the little people, Hem and Haw, grow frustrated and angry, getting hungry and discouraged. Instead of accepting that they had used up the cheese, they look for someone to blame for their predicament and ask: ‘Who moved my cheese?’

The lack of action on the part of Hem and Haw is due to fear. They are afraid of getting lost or failing to find new cheese. They simply want someone to put the cheese back so life can return to normal. Finally Haw, through hunger, decided to go into the maze to find another cheese store. Hem stayed put, waiting for someone to refill the original store. Initially Haw only found small pieces of cheese, but eventually he found a very big cheese and convinced Hem to come with him to the new store. Despite their new find, neither was so complacent this time, and each day they went into the maze to find new cheeses in case they ran out again.

Home truths

This book became an overnight success among businesses everywhere because the story rings true. We resist change. We procrastinate. Taking decisions is stressful and difficult, so we bury our heads in the sand, and put them off until tomorrow. But what happens when our cheese store runs out?

Window market parallels

The replacement window market is not that different from the cheese store. It was a flat market for windows last year. The public sector and conservatories are up, but the core replacement window market is down as it becomes more and more difficult to find windows to replace. Where once fabricators and installers enjoyed full order books for whole houses of replacement doors and windows, orders are now more likely to consist of single back doors or the odd kitchen window originally overlooked. The replacement window sector cheese store is running low. Are you taking action to protect your future?

New markets

Lots of forward thinking installers have already started to investigate new markets and diversify. Some of these sectors are proving more successful, while others have led installers up blind alleys like the characters in the book. There is no single magic answer. How do you choose the right direction? Using this checklist will narrow the field:

1). A growth market with big potential. Once word gets out other companies will jump on the bandwagon so you’ll need a market big enough to keep everyone fully occupied for years.

2). A home improvement market in your local area that requires installation resource, project management and selling skills you’ve already got is an important requirement.

3). You’ll need evidence too that it’s a healthy market. What are prices and margins like? Do your future suppliers have the muscle and the means to shape the market and sustain those margins?

4). A knockout product would be good too.

Is this just wishful thinking?

New generation products

One market that matches all the criteria is maintenance free PVC home improvement flat roofing. Once renowned for poor quality, short-lived felt roofing products, and poor prices, the market has been transformed by a new generation of products from Sarnafil Roof Assured, SRA, the home improvement arm of the UK’s leading supplier of PVC single ply membranes.

If you are an architect or developer Sarnafil needs no introduction. It’s chosen for most of Britain’s major projects: The new Excel Exhibition Centre has 100,000m2 of it. Bluewater Retail Park, Ikea and Sainsburys all chose it. The British Standards Institute itself is roofed with Sarnafil, and the British Board of Agrement gives it a life expectancy in excess of 30 years.

The market is already £158 million and growing fast. Approximately 50% of the 10.3 million homes built before 1985 have some flat roofing – dormers, extensions and garage roofs. With, at best, a life expectancy of around 12 years for the existing felt roofing, there is a huge 5 million homes market right on your doorstep.