Ready, willing and able
Students say they have what it takes to become the industry's next generation of leaders
By Victoria Fraza -- Industrial Distribution, 9/1/1999
Jeff Davis, Allen Self and Eric Wolfe say they have the tools that will enable them to become the next generation of industry leaders.Davis, 23, Self, 22, and Wolfe, 25, are all seniors majoring in industrial distribution at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. A combination of work and classroom experience, along with professional networking opportunities, puts them head and shoulders above other business school graduates, they say. The I.D. program at UAB is located within the school of business and is made up of both business and engineering courses. The idea is to give students the management skills of a traditional business degree along with the technical skills needed to work in industrial manufacturing and distribution.
"I feel like I have an advantage over 90 percent of the workforce because of my background in school and my work experience," says Davis, who finished his coursework in August. Davis worked for telecommunications company Anixter, Inc. while enrolled in classes. "I firmly believe we have the inside track, as opposed to a regular business degree."
Such confident words may be good news to manufacturers and distributors faced with a hiring crunch in recent years. Finding and keeping good employees is a top concern for many in the industry and has been for some time. Given that scenario, a pool of potential employees with market knowledge and general business skills would be a welcome addition to any company. But such employees don't come easily. There are few I.D. programs across the country, and those that do exist often have trouble attracting students because "I.D." is a little-known and not-so-glamorous field.
Still, companies looking to court some of these students may wonder what they are likely to get. What skills will people like Davis, Self and Wolfe bring to an organization? More importantly, do they have what it takes to, perhaps someday, run that organization?
New skill sets required
Finding and keeping good employees at all levels has registered as a top concern in Industrial Distribution's Annual Survey of Distributor Operations for the past several years. Similar results were reported in a recent study by the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors in conjunction with management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates. The majority of 202 industry executives polled reported "significant difficulty" in hiring management talent.
The difficulties are many-fold, according to the survey. First, candidates with the skills companies need are either not familiar with the industry - which means they need to be trained - or they are not interested in it. Another problem is that the nature of industrial distribution is changing. Traditionally filled with middle managers who don't have college degrees, the industry has an increasing need for employees with higher education levels.
Solving these problems depends largely on spreading the word about the field to high school and college students, say many industry executives and academics. While interest in the I.D. program at UAB is growing - the eight-year old program has over 150 students - demand still outstrips supply in the job market come graduation time, according to Professor Jay Smith, director of the UAB program.
The situation is similar on college campuses across the country. Professor John Boyless, director of the I.D. program at Eastern Michigan University, says he receives weekly inquiries from companies looking for new hires. And for years, students at Texas A&M University, which has one of the oldest I.D. programs in the country, have virtually had their pick of jobs, as companies continue to recruit heavily from its College Station campus.
While a degree in industrial distribution is not a pre-requisite for working in the industry, it does help direct employers to a source of labor willing to someday fill the void identified in the NAW/Russell Reynolds Associates study. Program coordinators say they provide students with skills distributors and manufacturers are looking for, with the added bonus that the students are interested in and want to make a career out of the industry. Students like Davis and Wolfe at UAB are already doing just that by working full time in the industry while they go to school. That's the case with the majority of students in UAB's I.D. program, says Smith, who helps place students with local distributors and manufacturers.
"They already understand what it's like to be at work, what's expected, what it's like to work with other employees," says Smith, pointing to what makes his students a bit different from the more traditional college graduates. "They are tested in the workplace."
As an inside salesperson at Graybar Electric, Wolfe says he has been able to connect what he's learned in the classroom to what he does in the office and vice versa. Wolfe pointed to a class that he, Davis and Self took on professional selling techniques as one example. A major part of the class included a project in which students had to research a product and, through role-playing, make a presentation to a potential client. The presentation was videotaped and then critiqued by the entire class. Wolfe says the project was "in-depth" in that it required students to not only research their product, but also its history and that of the company they were supposed to be working for. Other aspects of the class included teaching students how to sell in different situations and to different personality types.
Davis says the class helped him during an interview with a manufacturer in Pennsylvania. As part of the interview, candidates were asked to make an impromptu sales presentation. Drawing on the skills he learned in the selling techniques class, Davis says he was one of only two candidates who successfully sold to the interviewer. The other candidate was a UAB student as well.
In addition to a focus on sales, the UAB students say the engineering element of the program gives them an advantage in the workplace by helping them develop problem-solving skills. The purpose of the required core of engineering classes is to give students a foundation from which to develop product and applications knowledge they'll need in the workplace, says Smith. The students do not become engineers, he adds, but what they learn gives them the ability to talk with engineers on a professional level and to enter the workforce with some product knowledge under their belt.
It's that practical aspect of the program that is valuable to Self, who will graduate in December. While he has not worked full time for a distributor while in school, Self says he's been exposed to a range of companies through his coursework.
He pointed to a class on inventory management and control in which he was required to interview a local distributor and analyze the company's inventory management program. The goal was to identify what the company was doing right, what it was doing wrong, and to suggest improvements. Self says when he showed up for the interview, one of the first things the person in charge of inventory asked him was when he was going to graduate, implying that the distributor was looking for new talent.
"That makes me feel like what I'm doing is worthwhile," Self notes. "It's going to pay off down the road."
Links to the profession
An aspect of I.D. programs often touted by program directors and students alike is their close connection to industry. For instance, Boyless at Eastern Michigan University has an advisory committee made up of industry executives. The committee offers input on EMU's curriculum, explaining exactly what it is they are looking for in potential hires. Recently, the committee suggested that rather than focus on a traditional minor like marketing, students should focus on developing computer and communication skills along with a concentration in a particular area of the industry - such as fluid power or electronics. Such a program would allow students to complement the core courses of the major with a set of other useful, specialized skills.
In addition, students in the EMU program are required to do an internship with a manufacturer or distributor. As part of that process, EMU asks the company to evaluate the student, helping to ensure that the program is giving students the right skills for the workplace. One of the most common things Boyless says companies tell him they are looking for is good communication skills - written, oral and electronic.
About 80 percent of EMU's I.D. students plan to go into sales, says Boyless, who places graduates largely with companies that have between $10 and $40 million in sales. For the most part, students are placed locally, though that is changing. Boyless says many of the companies who inquire about his students are looking for people to fill vacancies across the country. Smith is confronted with the same issue at UAB, and notes that many of his students are not willing to relocate, though that attitude is beginning to change. Boyless says about 2/ of the 75 students who graduated from his program last spring were willing to work anywhere.
Davis, Self and Wolfe say they are prepared to start in sales, but don't want to stay there forever. They see themselves becoming managers and, eventually, industry leaders. While all three have local ties, they say they would be willing to move for the right offer. The "right offer" would include growth opportunities, benefits such as a 401K plan, stock options and good healthcare, along with the opportunity to work for a firm that is willing and able to grow, itself. The three are also looking for a competitive salary, something higher than the low- to mid-$20,000 range, which they say is what most students are making while working during school.
Boyless says his students want to work for companies that have well-organized training programs, offer advancement opportunities, and give employees the chance to help customers solve problems. They also want to work for firms that carry top product lines, are concerned about quality, and value higher education by offering tuition assistance programs.
Most I.D. programs report that starting salaries have risen in recent years - a reflection of the high demand for students in the workplace. It's a demand that Boyless says can cause some students to be impatient when it comes to starting a new job. To temper that, Boyless says he reminds his students that even if they are hired for an outside sales job, they are still going to spend time in the warehouse, in inside sales, in product training, and other parts of the business. Likewise, Smith warns that education is not a substitute for experience.
"Some students believe that their degree should give them the right to big salaries," says Smith. "And it doesn't. It just provides them the opportunity to go prove themselves."
Help wanted
Finding employees can sometimes be easy, but finding the right employees is rarely so.
Peter Land, a management consultant based in Montgomery, Ala., knows that all too well.
His firm, Peter A. Land Associates, Inc., specializes in organizational and human resource development. When hiring new employees, he suggests companies look for some basic characteristics.
First, he says it's important to look for candidates who have a good education and received good grades. He also encourages employers to look for those who have been involved with extracurricular activities -- especially in leadership positions.
"If you can find leadership responsibility, that's good," says Land. "It's an indication that they probably work well with people."
Land also suggests employers ask candidates during the interview process to describe the best job they've ever had. It's a question the candidate cannot not answer, says Land, and serves as a way to get the person talking. The goal is to get the candidate to reveal what it is he or she likes or dislikes in a professional environment. It can also tell the employer whether or not the person is a match for his or her company.
Another revealing question is to ask the candidate to describe his or her leadership style. This allows the employer to find out what the candidate knows about leadership and is also another good way to get the person talking.
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