The best of the new old ideas
Sometimes the best ideas are the old ones. In this issue we take a look at some of the new materials that are evolving the construction sector. Driven by a need to be more sustainable and ever more efficient, the industry is looking at all the options and it turns out some of the interesting new options are those that have been around for centuries.
Timber is enjoying a renaissance but there’s also materials like bamboo, which we are fairly sure have been available for a very long time and indeed are currently being used in construction. Yet the humble (and fast growing) bamboo material is being enhanced with modern techniques with some businesses predicting that modular bamboo units could be used for entire towns and cities.
In our travels, the Torque Magazine team has heard an increasing amount about the rise of B2B ecommerce sites, with some major fastener wholesalers now telling us that online ordering makes up to around 70% of their overall sales. These semi or fully- automated sites have enabled companies to grow sales beyond what their staffing levels would have been capable of over traditional phone sales, which means having a B2B ordering site has become even more sensible as it becomes harder to recruit in many nations.
Perhaps one of the key points about B2B ordering sites is that they make it easy for distributor customers to order product with you, and that’s one of the best old business ideas being taken forward. If you can look after your customer and make their lives easier, then there’s a fighting chance they’ll come back to you. It’s a principle that the likes of Amazon have used to dominate many markets, but it’s a concept as old as the hills.
Jonathon Harker
Editor
