.I’m not sure – it might only be me – but I’m pretty certain our lighting industry is getting more and more diverse each year.
New technologies, new companies, global supply chain, all apparently accessible just a few clicks away. It feels like there really is truly something out there for everyone.
So, with such a plethora of standard solutions on the market, and businesses queueing up to talk to you, each with carefully targeted products, why would anyone need a ‘Special’?
Maybe it all comes down to the essence of the word itself; ‘Special’. As an adjective it means ‘better, greater or otherwise different than the usual’. So its little surprise that those in a creative role, commissioned to deliver unique solutions into the built environment, will feel that ‘a Special’ is one of those go-to extra nuances that will help bring originality to a project.
I’d love to be able to tell you that all projects start out with such a central proclamation and that they are going to put ‘Special Lighting’ at the top of their things to do list (we wish). But typically, it’s the old trickle-down effect that kicks in from time to time . . . maybe once the colour of the carpets have been chosen.
At this point, you may be surprised to know, requests for a special luminaire are not usually met with open arms by the mainstream lighting industry. This may sound a little churlish but, in truth, most of these businesses have hundreds – if not thousands – of well-documented standard product permutations, and an infrastructure that is geared to do just that: deliver standard solutions.
Specials, by their very nature, can not only be potentially disruptive to the day-to-day business, due to the personnel, resources and expertise required to facilitate the Specials process, but these requests often come with unrealistic timescales, cost restraints, poorly considered ideas, and, bless them, those back-of-a-napkin sketches that need to be handled with extreme care.
This reticence to embrace a Special is also compounded by the ever-present ‘equal or approved’ rider. Even if you’ve been involved with a project from the start you may find that, 2 years later, you’ve been value-engineered out. And , if you come in at the end, you might be left trying to fit a square peg into a round hole . . . as Marilyn Monroe put it, you end up with ‘the fuzzy end of the lollipop’.
The cutting edge of most lighting businesses is the sales team: individuals usually high in charisma, company dogma, persistence, and a drive to hit their sales target of standard products. But when it comes to Specials, we find a real Achilles’ heel; its the one called ‘Chinese Whispers’, with just a dash of ‘Pass the Parcel’. You know the one: an idea starts with the client talking to the architect – then architect to consulting engineer – consulting engineer to main contractor – main contractor to electrical contractor – electrical contractor to local regional OEM sales manager – regional sales manager to the technical office manager – and technical office manager to whichever lighting engineer is having a quiet week. “Would you like to look at this request just in.” Sound familiar?
I’m fortunate to be one of those individuals whose niche in the lighting market has so often been involved with facilitating the needs of these Specials. I would like to tell you that this process involves me stepping forward as the mystical smoke clears but, in truth, most specials require no pyrotechnics of inspiration, but rather a simple pragmatic application of common sense. What they almost all have in common is the need to ensure a first-hand understanding of the requirements and the ability to speak to the people who really understand and care about what this special needs. To address and earn their trust. If you’ve managed to read this far, I’ve just given you the ‘golden ticket’.
Before you get too excited with your new prize, I need to point out that these ‘golden tickets’, unlike the Roald Dahl creation, are not picked up by chance; you have to know your stuff and know people who can deliver. And as I’ve already highlighted, the resources of most established lighting businesses are already running flat out, making those well-promoted, catalogue items that account for the bulk of their turnover.
BY the way, more often than not, to facilitate Specials production, a totally new network of independent specialist fabricators and assemblers is required to help you bring that very Special fixture to life. When it arrives, it may well have a well-respected European lighting company name on the box but, in truth, it was made on an industrial estate somewhere just off the M62 . . . just don’t tell the client.
One thing I would like to say about the Humble Special and the creative process that instigates it. Specials design is often the catalyst for innovation and the development of new product solutions that will go on to have a life in the world of catalogued standard items. So, if we don’t embrace Specials and try to be creative, and come up with innovative solutions, we may find that the industry has moved on; we’ve missed a trick, and are playing catch up. The early adopters have the potential to make healthy margins before the solution is embraced by the mainstream. After that it becomes little more than an inexorable swim to the bottom on price.
So, let’s welcome the Special, get to know it, address its needs, make sure the stakeholder is involved, make it a success, and then apply what we learn from it. Oh, and try and make sure you’ve costed it correctly.
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