BFPA Directory 2019

14 www.bfpa.co.uk end, good trade associations are always cognoscente of the need to try to generate income outside just subscriptions. By doing so, they are better placed to meet their obligations and the ‘value for money criteria’. Like their members, they also need to be both market and customer driven whilst treating their members with the same respect with which their members treat their customers. These have been the driving principles behind my efforts over the past five years as CEO of the BFPA. I, and the staff at the BFPA, regard our members as customers and as such, try to deliver products and services that they wish to buy through their membership subscription fee. Five key areas Different market sectors have different characteristics and, with that, the trade association for a given sector can be equally different from other trade associations. Some are essentially exhibition companies; some are modelled on publishing houses whilst others focus more upon technical and regulatory issues. In the case of the BFPA, the past five years have seen us build upon five key areas. i) Market research and industry statistics; to enable members to make evidence based strategic business decisions. ii) Technical committee work, to ensure that the BFPA has a strong voice in setting the technical standards against which all members will have to trade. iii) Government lobbying and engagement with Whitehall and the wider regulatory community to ensure that the best interests of our industry are reflected in the statute books and that our voice is heard in the corridors of power iv) Training services, in order to help meet the skills challenge in our sector v) Added value services such as the provision of business support services in HR, employment law, health & safety and tax. What we refer to as Strategic Alliance Partner Services; to reduce the day-to-day burden upon our member companies. These primary foci have been derived from regular consultation with the membership to ensure we are in-tune with their expectations. In other words – we are highly customer-driven. As any businessperson knows, there are things that we can influence and there is a plethora of things that we can’t directly influence. Most notably, the latter includes the technological and economic trends in our sector. Few members are large enough to dictate these trends and in dealing with them, all stakeholders need to be proactive and flexible. As the BFPA, we have always sought to stay abreast of these changes and where possible support our members in weathering what can be turbulent times. Digitalisation Most obviously, the recent trends towards integrated systems, digitalisation and generic motion control are now encroaching upon even the smallest of our members as are the new digital means of marketing and communication. End-users are now more concerned with functional specifications rather than dictating to the supplier what technology should be employed in meeting them. Social media has long been shown to have an enormous impact on modern marketing strategy. It is no longer enough to just use traditional hard copy means to access new and existing customers. A good trade association has an obligation to both ‘keep-up’ with its more forward thinking (and generally better resourced) members, whilst supporting its less well informed (and usually less well resourced) members in keeping abreast of the current trends. Convergence Another, more contentious issue recognises the inevitable convergence of different technologies and the equally inevitable overlap that has arisen between the interests of different trade associations in related sectors. To this extent, I have always been an advocate of collaborative working and of establishing alliances in which all parties gain significant added value. However, the engineering sector and in particular the trade association world can be very traditional and even protective of its own ‘space’, finding it difficult to embrace co- operative arrangements. One exception to this is in the engagement with other trade associations for the purposes of Government lobbying. Over the past five years, BFPA has significantly raised its activity levels in this area and has joined both the Engineering and Machinery Alliance and more recently, EURIS, in managing its approach to Brexit. These collaborative arrangements have been highly successful and have achieved greater impact than any one trade association could have hoped to achieve on its own. I am of the view that this philosophy should be extended to all trade association activities and going forwards, where appropriate and to the benefit of BFPA members, I will continue to explore such opportunities. During the early part of my tenure, I established the UK Motion Control Alliance (UKMCA) which provided a platform for trade associations considering collaborative working. Indeed, the UK MCA awards dinner; one of the products of that initiative, continues to run on an annual basis. As a platform for collaboration, the UKMCA remains an excellent concept and in the future, there may be opportunities to build upon this initiative and realise its true potential. As we approach the post-Brexit period, I can only reassure BFPA members that whatever the future holds, I and the BFPA Executive team will continue to do the job for which we are employed – to improve and protect the best interests of our membership. My thanks go to the Board and the members for their considerable support – it is always appreciated.