BESA president highlights key challenges
The president of the Building Engineering Services Association (the BESA) for 2016/17, Malcolm Thomson, has highlighted in his inaugural address the over-riding duty of the association as being to help its members to face up to present and future challenges.
He said, ‘We must emphasis to clients the high levels of technical competence, commercial capability and adherence to safety best practice that members are required to maintain. And we must address the skills shortages that threaten to limit the extent to which members can take advantage of commercial opportunities,’ speaking at the AGM of the association.
He continued, ‘We must protect and enhance the reputation of the BESA badge as one of quality and reliability. And we must ensure that membership remains healthy in number and representative of the sector.’
He added that he would be very proud indeed if during his presidency he could encourage BESA’s major members to use its smaller members as preferred sub-contractors.
One of the key reasons why small firms joined the association was to gain an understanding of the practices adopted by larger members so that they could become ‘more professional, more innovative and more efficient in all aspects of their business’, said Mr Thomson.
‘I believe that by fostering lasting relationships between the large guys and the small guys, much advantage can be gained by both parties,’ he concluded.
Malcolm Thomson is managing director of Enigma Environmental Services, which provides a range of cooling and associated building engineering services. He founded the company in 1999. He is a fellow of the Institute of Refrigeration and a director of ACRIB (Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Industry Board).
