NRCA strategic plan
NRCA strategic plan links
Strategic Initiatives 2008-2011
During its November 2007 meeting, NRCA's Executive Committee refined all the data
and input that had gone into the planning process and developed the following action
plan for the next three years. The plan centers on 10 key issues, with work plans
that flow from the earlier discussions. It should be noted that the Executive Committee
does not intend the work of the association to be limited to these 10 areas; obviously,
there is much more than is considered here to be important but is also thought to
be ongoing and well-managed. Instead, these issues are ones that require even more
attention.
Vision
NRCA is the voice and leading authority in the roofing industry for information,
education, technology and advocacy.
Mission
NRCA informs and assists the roofing industry, acts as its principal advocate and
helps members in serving their customers. Acting as the industry's steward, NRCA
continually strives to enhance every aspect of the roofing industry.
Staff
NRCA staff's mission is to exceed its members' expectations by knowing and anticipating
their needs and ensuring the highest quality of products and services through continual
creativity and efficiency.
Philosophy
NRCA members serve the profession best by serving the public first.
Values
The actions of NRCA and its members reflect the following values:
- Visionary in the identification and pursuit of change in the roofing industry
- Excellence in needs assessment, development and delivery of quality services,
programs and products
- Leadership in roofing-related issues
- Integrity in all professional and personal actions
- Respect for diverse viewpoints and individual differences
- Sharing of information with communication that is timely and effective
- Collaboration on action for critical issues
- Fiscal responsibility in effectively providing and managing human and financial
resources
- Caring for the well-being of members and their employees
- Flexibility in taking action that is timely and strategic
- Stewardship by being the responsible party for the industry
- Adaptability in knowing the marketplace is likely to undergo important change
Strategic Objective 1: Work to unify the industry while remaining
a contractor-focused association.
NRCA will remain primarily focused on providing assistance to and improving business
conditions for the roofing contractor community. NRCA recognizes, however, that
doing so requires NRCA to maintain positive relationships with numerous industry
constituencies, including manufacturers, distributors, designers, consultants and
building owners.
Some people involved in the development of this plan suggested that NRCA become
the "National Roofing Association," fully integrating all industry segments. NRCA
continues to believe, however, that roofing contractors need a distinct voice in
industry matters but must also consider the interests of other industry professionals.
To further the benefits of unity within the industry, NRCA expects the emergence
of two separate (but related) industrywide organizations will help to solidify the
industry. These organizations are:
The Roofing Industry Alliance for Progress, a related foundation with about 150
member companies—contractor and supplier—that have made significant commitments
to a permanent endowment fund.
The Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing, a separate membership organization
whose mission includes positioning the roofing industry at the forefront of innovation
in the way roof systems function, including the current green building movement.
From a strategic point of view, NRCA is seen as being uniquely positioned in the
roofing industry to provide a forum for noncompeting contractors to interact and
share information. NRCA will continue to search for more opportunities to take advantage
of that positioning. In addition, NRCA is uniquely positioned to act as the forum
for industrywide discussions involving all industry segments. In this role, NRCA
will need to be more responsive to the needs of manufacturers, distributors and
consultants and serve as an information conduit for those groups to deliver their
messages to contractors. Acting in that role also will serve the objective of bringing
the industry more closely together.
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Strategic Objective 2: Continue to drive membership growth by reinforcing
value to the commercial/industrial roofing contractor market and developing new
products and services for the residential contractor market.
One of the key findings of the branding study completed in 2007 is that NRCA is
perceived much differently by commercial and residential contractors—almost
regardless of a company's size. Commercial contractors, in general, see value in
NRCA programs and services, and residential contractors, in general, do not.
Commercial contractors look to NRCA to be a primary source of information, to be
their advocate before government and codes and standards bodies, and to help guide
them through what they know will be a changing marketplace. NRCA will need to develop
new products to demonstrate its competence in helping contractors manage change.
At the same time, there is continuing evidence that many smaller commercial contractors
perceive NRCA to be for the "big guys" only. Part of the challenge is to overcome
that perception while also developing the kinds of tangible benefits smaller commercial
contractors tell NRCA they want.
Residential contractors will be more likely to join NRCA if more direct, tangible
benefits are provided, especially in the area of business management. These contractors
see value in NRCA's advocacy role but don't believe it justifies their dues investment.
NRCA may need to develop product offerings specifically tailored to residential
contractors that can help them grow their businesses and manage them more professionally.
Conversely, NRCA may need to deliver the message that it has value for all contractors—regardless
of which markets they serve.
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Strategic Objective 3: Position NRCA as the expert authority for
matters important to the industry and to contractors in particular. This expertise
should extend to offering legal assistance either directly or through the assistance
of third parties.
Member surveys repeatedly report that members value the technical services, government
relations program and educational programs and see these as NRCA core offerings.
Members like to know they can call NRCA and get expert help on technical, regulatory
and insurance matters and understand the value of having NRCA engaged behind the
scenes with codes, standards and regulatory bodies.
One area of expert authority that has not been made widely available to all NRCA
members is providing legal assistance. Instead, a relatively small (400 or so) group
of contractors belongs to the National Roofing Legal Resource Center (NRLRC), a
separate membership organization that, among other things, produces legal information
and provides its members access to experienced attorneys.
There was some discussion about consolidating NRCA and NRLRC to achieve this objective.
It was felt, however, that NRLRC has achieved a powerful brand identity that could
be lost if it were simply made a part of NRCA. Further, it was felt that NRLRC could
be needed to play a more active role in the future should there be any new product-related
litigation.
NRLRC will continue its important role of being a primary source of expert legal
help, primarily to NRLRC members. There are some services NRLRC provides, however,
that should be made more generally available to NRCA members, such as information
about changes in model contracts and recent court cases. At the same time, NRLRC
can offer its members more by developing more information—and access to help—regarding
human resource and immigration law. For strategic purposes, the idea is to enable
NRCA members to have access to basic legal information and assistance and to have
an enhanced level of information and service for NRLRC members.
There is one more component to the notion of NRCA as an expert authority and that
is to position NRCA members as experts, as well, relying on information provided
to them by NRCA. That is a powerful message to deliver to members' customers and
others.
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Strategic Objective 4: Position NRCA to help contractors manage their
businesses in a changing marketplace.
Every constituent group agreed that the roofing marketplace is on the verge of important
and lasting change, driven mostly by technology that will enable roof systems to
be more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. This change has a number
of components, and there are also a variety of stakeholders, many with their own
interests to preserve. For the roofing industry, this movement includes, among other
things, using more roof insulation, using materials that are more reflective and
emissive, building vegetated roof assemblies and integrating photovoltaic materials
into roof systems.
The newly created Center for Environmental Innovation in Roofing will play a key
role in helping the industry find its proper role—through research, communication
and advocacy.
In addition, however, NRCA must play the vital role of helping its members understand
the changes that occur—and their implications. This will demand that NRCA stay
current with emerging technologies; provide for the dissemination of information
among interested parties; take positions on behalf of the roofing contractor community;
and generally advise members about how to best position themselves in this new arena.
NRCA will also be called upon to help members understand the best ways to use information
technology in their businesses, including routine work that is increasingly being
conducted online.
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Strategic Objective 5: Advance professionalism in the roofing industry
through education and training.
There is near-unanimous agreement on the need for NRCA to develop and offer training
programs for the industry, especially for the employees of NRCA-member roofing contractors.
The bulk of this work will be done through NRCA's new education brand, NRCA University,
which will include a number of traditional educational offerings (conferences, "ask
the expert" sessions and the Future Executives Institute), as well as a series of
programs being developed for online learning. Ultimately, online delivery is seen
as a natural solution for workers who are reluctant to travel and for employers
who are reluctant to devote good weather days for training.
The training programs will be developed in such a way as to allow for the certification
or accreditation of the individuals participating in them. NRCA envisions a scenario
where roofing workers, foremen, superintendents, estimators and safety directors
may all have their own certification programs based on NRCA-produced educational
programs, materials and examinations.
Still another component of the training is to be certain it aligns with a well-defined
career path for people entering the industry. This is consistent with study results
presented by the Gallup Organization in the late 1990s following its study of the
industry's work force.
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Strategic Objective 6: Continue to improve the availability of qualified
workers for the industry, including legal immigrants who want to work for NRCA members
in the U.S.
An aging U.S. population, combined with a flawed national immigration system and
a poor industry image, make it extraordinarily difficult to attract new people to
the industry—people employed as roof workers, project managers, foremen, superintendents
and estimators.
Part of the strategy for improving the existing situation is to help members develop
programs to attract workers by providing information through secondary and vocational
schools, for example. Another part of the strategy is to work—constantly—on
improving the image of the industry. The industry's image can be improved dramatically
as "green" roofing products are more commonly used and workers understand the work
they perform has importance outside the company they work for by helping preserve
the environment.
Another important part of the strategy is to be a significant part of the effort
to reform national immigration policy and law. Any sound immigration policy must
allow for a reasonable number of immigrants to enter the country legally; must ensure
the borders are secure from illegal immigrants and/or terrorists; and must include
a method for dealing with the estimated 12 million people who are living in the
country illegally today. Finally, immigration policy must not rely on employers
to act in the role of enforcing the law by punishing employers who unknowingly hire
illegal immigrants, for example.
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Strategic Objective 7: Position NRCA as the central source of information
about roofing and the one industry association charged with driving information
to its many stakeholders.
NRCA must continue to dedicate resources to be sure its Web site, www.nrca.net,
is seen as a valuable resource for people in the industry, their customers, researchers,
students and others. This requires devoting the necessary resources to the site,
as well as continually gathering relevant information to include in it.
In addition to collecting and managing information, however, NRCA must also deliver
information, proactively, to a number of industry segments. Many NRCA members still
have little idea of the scope of NRCA's services, for example, and many roofing
customers need to have more basic information to make informed choices.
Affiliate associations are seen as natural partners in this undertaking that can
help to deliver information to all of the industry's stakeholders.
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Strategic Objective 8: Ensure the roofing industry continues to "own"
the nation's roofs.
Roofing industry stakeholders see enormous opportunities with the emergence of "green
building" technologies; with those opportunities, however, come some risks. The
greatest perceived risk is that roof system construction could be taken over by
others—for example, landscape contractors or electrical contractors or even
by a new market force (photovoltaic roof installers?) not yet imagined.
Achieving this objective will require involvement at the building codes and standards
level; involvement with the many "green building" organizations; involvement with
appropriate government agencies; and involvement with others who may want to lay
claim to roofing work. Much of this work will provide intangible results that will
be extremely difficult to measure—but will be increasingly important nonetheless.
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Strategic Objective 9: Position NRCA as the ombudsman for the roofing
industry.
NRCA is seen as the natural organization to promote the development of meaningful
standards; monitor the performance of products currently in the marketplace; seek
information about—and even to test—products before they are introduced
into the marketplace; and generally ensure commonly used roofing products should
meet their intended purposes.
Part of being an ombudsman includes setting higher expectations for roof system
designers and roofing contractors. as well. Part of that strategy is to continually
promote the use of NRCA roofing manuals throughout the design, consulting and standards-setting
communities; part of it is continuing to reach out to industry organizations that
represent other industry stakeholders.
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Strategic Objective 10: Reinforce the NRCA brand in everything NRCA
does.
One of the key findings of the branding study NRCA conducted in 2007 was that the
NRCA brand is powerful but not always attached to the products and services we offer.
For example, not all readers of
Professional Roofing magazine understand
it is published by NRCA nor do all members know
For Members Only is an NRCA
publication.
The branding consultant recommended that NRCA develop a "branded house" approach
to its products and services: that is, virtually everything NRCA produces should
be immediately recognized as coming from NRCA. Using this approach, all NRCA publications,
products and programs would prominently display the NRCA logo and acronym.
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