ACR industry ambassadors wanted!

Would you like to become an ambassador for our ACR Industry? There are now more ways than ever before for you to represent your industry.
In the discussion-thread to my last blog, the topic of ACR Industry Ambassadors appeared with several eminent industry names being offered as excellent examples of people whom are considered as fulfilling this role. There were less than a handful of names proposed but in reality there are many more. A lot more in fact with the vast majority and perhaps the best examples quietly going about their business almost unnoticed.

An ACR Ambassador is a person who acts as a representative or promoter of this industry. Thirty years ago that person would probably have been a senior business person or leading academic nearing the end of their career and 'now finding the time to put something back' into the industry. Fifteen years ago, in a more image-conscious era, that role tended to be filled by younger and more dynamic types pushed by their organisation's wider responsibility to the industry. Today, while both of these may still be true, the scope has widened considerably and we need to look outside the boardrooms and universities to find many more real ambassadors.

The ACR industry's greatest asset has always been the people that work within it. In today's social-media landscape every one of these has a voice and many are using it to great effect. Visit any of the web's many online industry related forums and groups and you will find people sharing information and best practice, answering questions, and offering guidance. It has always been ingrained in ACR industry people to want to solve problems and help others. Social media now gives them the ability - and sometimes the credibility - to be industry ambassadors on a much wider stage. We can find ACR industry evangelists generating a buzz all over the web. Take a closer look you and will find in abundance, the passion, energy, knowledge and experience that are traditionally attributed to an ambassador. There is no longer one face and voice representing and promoting the industry, nor even a handful, there are hundreds, maybe thousands.

This doesn't mean that the only ones representing and promoting our industry are tweeters, bloggers, Facebookers, or LinkedIners, etc. By its very nature, the ACR industry has its foundation in engineering and whilst many aspects of the industry have changed, mechanical products and systems are still at the heart of everything we do. As technology has changed over the years and mechanical reliability improved, it is also true that customer expectations have risen. Demand for product knowledge and excellence in customer care is greater than ever before.

To users of ACR systems the people who really represent our industry and promote its activities are our front-line staff. The engineers and technicians who get their hands dirty and actually make or fix plants. There is no getting away from the fact that the standing of this industry often lies firmly in their hands. One careless act by those at the sharp-end can tarnish the industry's reputation. To our customers, these are our true representatives; these are the human face of the industry and although these are not as high-profile as the names mentioned in the previous blog-thread, they are the 'stars' because actions speak louder than words. Best practise and industry standards mean nothing if they fail to be followed and implemented. These targets are there to be bettered not merely achieved with today's 'stars' championing the reduction of our industry's environmental impact.

Longevity of service and age are no longer considered a pre-requisite to being considered an ambassador but nor do they exclude them. An ambassador can be the person speaking to the United Nations, they can be the person speaking at their local school, they can be the person that proudly displays their institute or association letters after their name, they can be the person answering questions in a LinkedIn group, they can be the person that comes to fix or service your plant, they are lecturers and trainers; they potentially all of these and more, they are you and me.

All of us are ambassadors for the ACR industry. Please take this responsibility seriously.

Become an ambassador for the ACR industry today; one the industry can be proud of.  

(First appeared on the ACR News blog http://www.acr-news.com/blog/view_entry.asp?id=228 

The ACR Industry needs a 'Fred' Award

It is around twenty years ago that Mark Sanborn, a professional speaker, trainer and author on leadership and customer services met Fred his postman. Mark had just moved into his new home in Denver when Fred knocked on his door, introduced himself and welcomed him to the neighbourhood. He also asked Mark about himself and how he wanted his mail handled while he was away.

Mark was astonished. This was not the service he had come to expect from a postman. He was truly pleasantly surprised and delighted by Fred's approach and manner.

Mark became interested and asked Fred more about his job and how he approached it. Fred's answers inspired him to develop motivational seminars and a bestselling book (The Fred Factor) promoting Fred's attitude and approach to life. In a nutshell, the Fred philosophy is to realise and practise that everyone can make a difference; success is built on good relationships; you must continually create value for others and it doesn't have to cost anything; you can reinvent yourself whenever you want.

In the past few months I have had the pleasure to meet two 'Fred's from the ACR industry. The first was a service engineer who I bumped into by chance when I walked into a client's refrigeration plant room on a site in Birmingham. The young engineer was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, helpful and a pleasure to speak to. The second was a food factory engineer who managed the refrigeration plant along with all the other services required in a modern food production environment. Although not a specialist refrigeration engineer, he went out of his way to provide the information I required and to answer all my questions and more.

Both of these engineers embodied excellent customer service qualities described in the 'Fred Factor'.

We should never forget that although highly technical by nature, the ACR industry is a still a service industry with customer service excellence being a key to business success. If you think that is a cliché, imagine how long a company can survive that ignores this in the competitive market place we find ourselves in today. Customers do have a choice and they will go to where they perceive they most consistently get what pleases and impresses them.

The 'Fred' philosophy is built on timeless values like personal responsibility, authentic relationships, and respect for others. It is in essence, a mind-set that looks for and seizes opportunities to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. The ACR industry has individuals who go beyond the ordinary and create extraordinary experiences for their clients. These are not only service engineers; they are from all business fields, from sales through to administrators. Their attitude to customer service should be recognised by this industry in the same way as technical excellence is. Normal is overrated and has never been a term that should be applied to our industry. We should have a 'Fred' Award, although I am sure that we can give it a more appropriate name from one of the many fine examples from our own industry.

(First published on the ACR News website: http://www.acr-news.com/blog/view_entry.asp?id=224

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’?

September is not traditionally the month associated with romance, so when I was given a lesson in the language of love recently, I was pleasently surprised.

On a short flight recently, I struck up a conversation with the man in the seat next who turned out to be a linguistics expert that had travelled all over the world and can speak more than a dozen languages fluently. Interesting, I thought, but unfortunately, I am sad to relate that he was in fact extremely dull, and I can only assume that he has nothing of any interest to say in any of the many languages he speaks. I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

I was flying to meet a client and to receive a presentation from two contractors that are tendering for a new project. The first contractor had submitted an excellent proposal for the project and their presentation didn’t disappoint either. They, offered a natural refrigerant which they felt provided a better solution that an HFC, and had gone to great lengths to provide a good system COP. They also utilised some of the waste heat to be used by the client’s other processes. I was impressed.

After the presentation and the contractor had left the room, I was surprised by the client’s reaction; “That was dull wasn’t it?” he said. “I don’t think they understand what we want. We are not interested in HFCs, COPs, EERs, R717s or F-Gas Regs! Why would I want to pay extra for a higher COP?” he asked. He continued, “All I want to do is to store my product at the right temperature for as little as possible”

When I explained what all the jargon had meant in simple layman’s terms, the client was genuinely interested. “Ahhh…COP….hmmm….I like that, but why the hell didn’t they just say that they would save me money,” he moaned, “without subjecting me to all that tedious technical bull****?” “I want to save the planet as much as the next man, but if this contractor wants the job, he will have to ‘sweet-talk’ me better than that next time”.

We, in the ACR industry, have our own language, which works well enough between ourselves but can positively be a disadvantage when trying to communicate with those outside. Technical expertise and being fluent in “ACR language” is a good start, but it falls far short of the ‘sweet talking’ that the client wished for. A list of superior technical attributes is not exactly what Elizabeth Barrett Browning meant when she wrote ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’!

‘COP’ may not exactly be the language of love, but when explained clearly, it may soften even the hardest end-user’s heart. Whether whispering sweet jargon is a 'transferable skill' that will work in the bed-room as the dark autumn nights start to draw in, however, is doubtful.

See: http://www.acr-news.com/blog/view_entry.asp?id=154

Carbon offsetting – friend or foe?

In 1978, Ronald Higgins in his book ‘The Seventh Enemy: The Human Factor in the Global Crisis’ outlined the six major threats he saw facing the human race at that time. These ranged from environmental abuse to shortage of renewable resources. The seventh, and perhaps the deadliest he claimed, was apathy; our own inability to get off our backsides and do something about the problems facing us.

The ‘Seventh Enemy’ has now long been out of print and some thirty years later there is a real sense that we have moved on. Climate change issues are now openly discussed and are being tackled to some degree at both governmental and personal levels. In our industry, investment continues to be made in energy efficiency and it is encouraging that the need for training of staff and education of end-users are commonly debated topics.

The concept of carbon neutrality is probably at least a decade old but the interest by businesses in reducing and ultimately neutralising their carbon footprint has grown dramatically in the past couple of years. It is no longer just a few companies looking to improve their environmental credentials, there are also sound financial reasons for them to try and reduce their energy consumption given the instability of energy prices.

As the threats posed by climate change become more obvious, not only to scientists but also to the general public, the concept of being able to go ‘carbon neutral’ is an attractive one. Carbon neutrality offers individuals and companies the opportunity to take responsibility for the greenhouse emissions caused by their activities.

For users of refrigeration and air conditioning, it is natural that our industry should become a focal point and in response we continue to develop the tools and capabilities to rise to the challenges. We are in demand and our skills are an essential part of the solution. Or are they?

Before we get too carried away with a sense of our importance it would pay us to take a quick look over our shoulder at a new enemy lurking in the shadows. The sale of carbon neutral products and services is a rapidly growing market. Whilst the ACR industry gets caught up in arguing timetables for refrigerant phase-outs and training qualification start dates, the market for carbon neutrality is moving at a frightening pace; so fast in fact that an alternative ‘solution’ has been sought and found.

The new solution being considered by many is carbon offsetting. This solution offers individuals and companies a guilt free opportunity to consume as much as they want. Many companies, and particularly the ones that our industry deals with, have very little chance of easily becoming carbon neutral simply due to the nature of what they do. Therefore by acknowledging the damage they are causing and by paying to offset, they are seen to be doing something about it. Whether the motive is cynical or not, research has shown that being seen as green can be profitable.

The perceived advantages of carbon offsetting are so attractive to many that a multi-million pound industry has sprung up to service this requirement. A recent survey found that 73% of the British public would be willing to pay £5 of offset carbon emissions for a short-haul flight and £15 for long haul. It is only a matter of time before this willingness to pollute first and pay later reaches industrial users on a larger scale where the offsetting, and hence the figures involved are even greater.

However, when one looks closely at the carbon offset industry it is clear that these carbon experts do not agree on many things and that the carbon offset calculation itself is a guesstimate. Some experts even argue a very strong case that the whole concept of carbon offsetting fundamentally flawed and that it is impossible to state categorically that buying any carbon offset actually neutralises the damage made by greenhouse gas emissions.

The danger for the planet is that money spent on carbon offsetting is not being spent on reducing the damaging emissions in the first place. The danger for the ACR industry is that money could diverted away from projects that could genuinely reduce emissions. It may be cheaper to plant a few trees than to invest in new plant and for the ACR industry, herein lies the problem.

Is carbon offsetting a new enemy, albeit one with a smiling face? Time will tell.