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ID Editors Jack
Keough, Kimberly Griffiths and Joe Nowlan were on hand to
cover ISCON 2005, the spring meeting for the Industrial Supply
Assn., in Toronto, May 14–16. Here is their report
highlighting convention activities. |
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Last waltz in Chicago this
November
| The future of ISA’s convention was
“possibly the hottest topic” for members who responded to a
survey done earlier this year, said Tom Berger, ISA’s
president, at the Opening Session. Berger announced that while
the annual Fall Business Expo will be held again this year in
Chicago, it will be the last such meeting. Next spring’s
meeting, the only one in 2006, will be held in May, as
scheduled, in San Antonio. After that, there will be but one
annual meeting. ISA members will be surveyed by telephone in
the weeks ahead to determine the time of year, locations and
general format of future meetings. Other Opening Session news
saw the late Roger Taylor honored. Taylor, former president of
North American Tool Corp., and a past member of the ISA board,
passed away last year. Taylor’s wife, Gail, and their
daughters were present as a $25,000 donation was made in
Taylor’s memory to the Gary Buffington Memorial Scholarship
Fund. |
Sponsored by
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Forbes calls era “innovative and
inventive”
| Before giving his advice and
observations on the economy and business climate in his
keynote address, Steve Forbes, CEO and president of
Forbes magazine, gave a disclaimer. Recalling the words
of his immigrant grandfather, who started the magazine, Forbes
said, “he would [say], ‘You make more money selling the advice
than following it!’” Forbes went on to discuss a variety of
topics including health care, the flat tax and trial lawyers.
Forbes emphasized his optimistic outlook on business in
general. “When people look back on this period, they will
conclude that…we are entering an era that will be noted as one
of the most innovative and inventive eras of human history,”
he said. |
Sponsored by
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EDI standards being
pursued
| At the Membership Luncheon,
ISA’s executive vice president John Buckley told members that
the ISA’s E-Business Committee was making headway towards
eventual establishment of EDI standards for its member
companies—something Buckley emphasized “will be driving the
supply chain” in the years ahead. ISA president Tom Berger
told the luncheon that they had signed a number of new members
since its July 1, 2004 inauguration, including 39 new
manufacturers and 19 new distributors. |
Sponsored by
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Doing
it the SSE way
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While the Small, Specialty &
Emerging Members’ roundtable and luncheon has become popular
with the titular distributors, the session also seems to draw
a large number of manufacturers, who were the majority. Kevin
Boyle of Henkel Loctite Corp. explained how the sharing of
market information between distributors and manufacturers is
the best way to create strategic partnerships. Phil Hanson of
The C.H. Hanson Co. shared his insights on why innovations and
new products are important, including reasons such as making
more money, and the advantages of being a sole source. Dan
Horner of Applied Products spoke on value-added services or
solutions as revenue
generators. | | |
Future’s so bright, distributors’
gotta be prepared
|
Distributors looking
to transform their sales team into a powerful force in the
21st century packed the Dave Kahle sessions on “Transforming
Your Sales Force for the 21 Century.” Kahle explained that, in
these changing times, salespeople need to be more specialized,
more flexible, more productive and more directable. Pressures
from the environment (including mergers, alternate channels,
integrated supply and lower gross margins); customers (who
don’t want their time wasted, and do want salespeople to know
their businesses); and value-added (the time spent with the
salesperson must be valuable) are forcing these
changes. |
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Paper airplane assembly fails,
then excels
| Jim Handy found perhaps the best
way to relate the importance of lean manufacturing in his
session, “Learn the Skinny About Lean: It’s Not Just for
Manufacturers Anymore,” all in the guise of a paper airplane
assembly line. Volunteers were given a position in the
airplane manufacturer’s (initially) unorganized assembly line,
and then given the task to make it more efficient. Handy
showed that practicing lean business processes can save time
and money, and remove waste. (ID salutes the “materials
handling person” in each demonstration, as there was no way
any of us could have run around the room like that without
falling
over.) | | |
A real challenge
| If you want to retain good
employees, you must give them challenging work, says Dr. Jan
Ferri-Reed of the Key Group, a consulting firm. Dr. Reed told
ISCON attendees, studies show challenging work is the number
one reason employees stay at companies. Dr. Reed also
identified a number of other key areas for retention
including: flexible work hours; a good, cooperative work
environment with their other employees/teammates; training
opportunities; and fair pay and
benefits. | | |
Culture shock
| When a company establishes a
good corporate culture within its organization, big benefits
will follow, says Jerry Haney of Visionomics, a consulting
firm. Haney, a speaker at the ISCON meeting, said Southwest
Airlines is a perfect example of a company that has an
outstanding culture leading to increased profits, outstanding
customer service and excellent employee satisfaction.
Companies with strong cultures have a great ability to attract
and retain top talent and successfully adapt much quicker than
their competitors to changing market conditions, Haney added.
Also of note, Southwest employees dress up for
Halloween. | | |
Learning from
your mistakes
''Before I went to the
Industrial Supply Assn.’s convention last week in Toronto, I
was hoping to return and write a story how great the
convention was, the excitement that was generated and the
substantial number of members that the event drew. But I can’t
because, well frankly, to put it in the nicest possible way,
the convention was not good. Not good at
all.''
To read and comment
on Jack Keough's Blog, please go to www.inddist.com/kkblog. | | |
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