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What’s missing in news of recent change in formaldehyde emissions standards?

Here’s a message for all coatings businesses: Get out of your box and rise above any type of legislation that forces you to do things differently. Instead, feel the gravity—see only opportunity. Ask yourselves, what can we do with this one?

We’re all so busy with the minutia of keeping our businesses going. Then, when industry news breaks, it always focuses on “what you gotta do now.” So we do what we gotta do and then we get back in our box. We miss the point, miss the opportunity and fail to see the trend.

What’s missing in most industry news is the purpose behind the story. So it’s up to you to find it, otherwise all the benefit gets lost. Case in point. What’s missing in the formaldehyde emissions regulations story is insight on the bigger picture. This whole thing is a reply to the Green Movement which said “we’re not going to have that anymore.” That’s the purpose of the legislation, it’s not just new rules made up just to make your life more difficult. There’s a whole movement toward Green and that means it will drive demand—ahhh, finally, the good news.

Modern Woodworking, in its blog, described the legislation very colorfully, “… a Cooperative Success Story … a true consensus [despite] difficult legislation”—but they only narrowly squeeze in the “green” word at the end of the story. That’s not an indictment—they’re just doing their job of reporting—it’s my message: you have to find the purpose to make the best of change.

Being successful means that your business is alert enough to recognize important trends and then act on them in ways that keeps your business relevant to customers. Green marketing has gone from a trend to a way of doing business. Companies like yours must first recognize and adopt the value of green internally and then communicate this news to your prospects and customers externally—simply because it’s valuable. You make it part of your business intent (to be “green”) and then incorporate the message into your sales and marketing efforts. You take a stand, everybody’s on board, it really becomes part of your brand promise. Again, this is just making hay with stuff you have to do anyway. You won’t be first to market of course but there shouldn’t be any question where you stand.

Three steps make the most of any change

The coatings industry gets more than its fair share of challenges, particularly when it concerns environmental issues. The trick is summed up in three consecutive steps:

1. Your Outlook

Elarge how you view the world outside your business, even if it seems adverse to your way of doing business. Cultivate an open-minded culture and praise people when they share what they notice.

2. Your Resolve

This is about how you deal with change when you see it. It’s where leadership is most important. You decide where you’re going and then get your people on board with your vision for the serious work of making it happen. You focus on results, and accept all the challenges.

3. Your Resolve

There are things you can do to turn even a mundane federal legislation—something completely out of your control—into something you can leverage for attention and credibility. Consider any new resolve as “news” especially when your customers may be looking for it anyway. When you put it out there, on your sign or your website or your shipping containers you earn a position. Your audience will be happy because you’ve made a clear, informative stand on the subject and because you’ve made the benefit easy to understand..

First things first

Getting up to code with formaldehyde content sooner than later is your best strategy. Don’t wait. Start the conversation internally, involve everyone you can, and give it a timeline for complete adoption. And don’t forget, ACCESSA Coatings Solutions can assist you with the latest coatings and adhesives that meet or exceed all new formaldehyde emissions standards. They can remove all the guesswork from purchasing to application and insure a smooth, profitable transition.

The last word

Don’t forget or underestimate the need to bring the entire company up to speed anytime change is going to occur. You want to send clear and consistent messages all the time. Resolve isn’t much good unless everyone knows what it is. Remember Oldsmobile? An upscale, very fashionable brand that made some great cars in the 60s. Well, it didn’t keep up. It wasn’t reenergized with anything new or of real value. Later, in desperation, they launched a very hollow marketing campaign: “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” In the campaign they told us what it wasn’t (we still remember that), but they never really told us what Olds was. The brand died quietly.

Feel free to challenge me on this stuff. Comments are more than welcome.

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