Salvage Wire

Salvage Wire
Helping Automotive recyclers become leaders in their industry

Thursday 3 October 2019

Winning in the vehicle recycling industry

One of the most difficult questions for any business owner to answer is Why are you doing this? Why do you do what you do?


For many this industry is all then know, their business was started by a previous generation and they have inherited their role as owner, leader and CEO from their father, grandfather, or another family member. So why are they doing this job?
For me, my role in this industry is to help others to grow, learn and develop and become leaders in the industry. Leaders who can then influence their colleagues, peers and workers to also grow, learn and develop and become leaders themselves.
In many cases this is not happening, and lots of people are just here for the pay check, or turn up because they have no alternative. 
There is hope for everyone though; if they set their minds to work and plan their future they can do almost anything!
Zig Ziglar in his book Born to Win says that “you were born to win, but to be the winner you were born to be, you have to have a clear plan to get there, this means having specific goals that you are shooting for.”
How many of us have set clear goals for our future, ever? Physical goals, spiritual goals, mental goals, family, financial, personal and career goals?  I suspect that many of us have a few goals on parts of our lives, but not all, and many will not have any goals over any part of their lives.
Once I realised that I needed a clear focus for my working life, a reason to work for example, then everything became much clearer and better defined. I want to help others become leaders in the vehicle recycling industry, and as I put everything I have into that then success has followed.
But how does this help the CEO facing financial problems, or regulatory issues, or lack of employees I hear you ask. It doesn’t give them immediate answers, and may not be swift enough to avoid financial collapse or a court hearing, but it can give them the focus, motivation and reason to go to work, to make a difference and be successful. If they can realise the ‘why’ of their role, understand what it takes to win, and lead others down that winning road then their business will be successful, their employees will thrive, their customers will be happy and satisfied and their profits will grow.
This is a life time of effort, because you never stop getting better, never stop growing, never stop learning, never stop teaching: and as soon as you reach one of your goals you need to set another so you do not lose momentum.
So what should you goals be? And how do you set goals that are achievable?
Goals will be different for different stages of your life, for your personal status( single, married, parent, grandparent), for your employment status (owner, leader, employee, retired), for your financial situation (home owner, renter) and more; separate short and long term goals will be required. 

Time needs to be taken to analyse your current situation and where you would like to be in a year, five years, ten years etc. Then write the goals down - nothing is true until it is written down - and then plan how to achieve each goal. Every goal is just a series of small steps between your current situation and success, breaking them down into chunks of activity makes them much less daunting and gives you a plan to follow.

Friday 20 September 2019

Week in Words - Poland

Musings, activities and thoughts for the week.

Monday
Normality for a day, teaching technicians on electric and hybrid vehicle technology and how to keep themselves safe whilst working on these vehicles.
These guys are the lifeblood of the vehicle repair industry, a lot of the work they do goes on behind the scenes, is unreported and not very glamorous, but without them we would not be able to get our cars repaired. I salute them every time I visit one of these establishments.

Tuesday
Following a regular chiropractor visit a few hours of admin before jumping in the car to Heathrow for a flight.
The parking experience at Heathrow got me wondering, so many cars all sat stationary for a number of days, what an opportunity for an enterprising business to offer complimentary services for these owners; car wash, detailing, smart repairs and more can all be offered whilst these vehicles are not being used; efficient use of the vehicle keeps everyone happy and productive.

Wednesday
Three car recycling yards in Poland, three diverse operations all working in the same marketplace, all showed the immense investment required for compliant and legal business operations, one yard very conventional, another very modern and the final one a lot of fun - not sure that a drift team is part of normal operations though.

Thursday
Krakow for the 4th annual recycling conference hosted by FORS, the Polish car recycling organisation; hosted in English and Polish with simultaneous translation, FORS attracts delegates from all over the world, plus a large number of senior policy makers and even a member of parliament to the conference and they are not frightened to attack a number of difficult and controversial subjects during the day. So different to what I have seen in the UK in the past 20 years that I have been involved in this industry; we seem to be afraid of confronting our MP’s, policy makers and legislators over issues that are fundamental to our industry and have a significant detrimental impact to our work.

Friday
Catalytic Converter recycler proudly showed the conference delegates around their facility - nothing was off limits including the laboratories and processing plant. Amazing insight into an often overlooked (by the media) process that returns significant value back into the end of life processing, creates no waste, and completes the recycling loop with everything that is removed from the catalyst going back into new products.

Finished off the week with a few hours touring Krakow.