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placemakers 2021
Of foundations AND FUTURES
In August PlaceMakers celebrated not only 40 years of growth but also outlined its plans going forward for the coming months and years, armed with resolve and planning. Steve Bohling reports.
THE THEME OF PlaceMakers’ first conference and awards since 2019 was “Our Foundations / Our Future” and there was much to celebrate over 11-12 August, the week before Delta put us into lockdown once more.
The event at the Vodafone Events Centre was led off by conference MC and PlaceMakers veteran of almost 25 years Bob Barsdell, followed by an address by departing Chief Executive Bruce McEwen and an update on Fletcher Building from CFO Bevan McKenzie.
I caught up with Bruce McEwen to find out more about the underlying themes and ideas behind this year’s gathering of Team Blue in this its 40th year.
“The theme this year was ‘Our Foundations / Our Future’. It was an opportunity to come together – particularly given the disruption of the last 12-plus months – and a chance to celebrate success in what was a really strong year.
“I think we all got out of the habit in the last 12 to 18 months of focusing on and celebrating the good things, so it was a great opportunity to get back to celebrating the good stuff and being really focused on recognising when things go well.”
As well as looking ahead, conference was also about acknowledging PlaceMakers’ foundations, “So we took the opportunity to recognise a number of people in the business who have been there for almost 40 years and still are in the
business and making a difference, which is fantastic, as well as to talk about the bright future that we have.”
This “bright future” however will mean navigating what Bruce McEwen calls “a very different market to what we’ve seen in the past,” featuring activity levels that we haven’t seen before, levels that no-one could have planned for, at the same time as a few bumps in the road.
“So, this is a unique environment,” he says. “Certainly, it’s not an easy environment but it’s a whole lot easier than the dire predictions economists were forecasting 18 months ago!”
With disruption comes uncertainty, but the flipside is that disruption can also mean opportunity.
“The focus around conference was a strong foundation for a bright future and very much how do we win through disruption?”
Part if not all of PlaceMakers’ way forward in these unprecedented times is simply about “Recognising that the market is disrupted, that we will have price inflation, we will have supply shortages. We will have customers who will be challenged through this period.
“So, it’s about being open and transparent – the issues are not going to go away, they’re not going to get better with age. It’s about recognising where we are and doing what is humanly possible.”
The words “humanly possible” strike a chord, what with the PlaceMakers Foundation’s recently announced support for the great work being done by suicide prevention organisation MATES in Construction (and indeed MATES’ Victoria McArthur also spoke at conference).
For Bruce McEwen and PlaceMakers, mental health has become as big an issue as physical safety.
“All businesses talk a lot about health & safety but spend a lot of time on safety,” he says.
“You really want health and safety, particularly mental health, putting our people and our customers first as we go through this
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal OCTOBER 2021 | NZHJ 19