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ID editors Jack
Keough and Victoria Fraza Kickham were on hand to cover the
recent ISA Business Expo in Chicago. The meeting was held at
the Hyatt Regency O’Hare and the Rosemont Convention Center
Nov. 19-21. Here are their reports highlighting the
convention’s activities.
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Sponsored by
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ISA looks to the
future
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Sponsored
by
| With convention attendance down 10 percent compared to
last year, Industrial Supply Assn. leaders were focusing on
the future at their recent Business Expo in Chicago. A
comprehensive plan to grow membership, increase convention
attendance and focus on the association’s “value proposition”
was unveiled during the meeting’s General Session on Sunday,
Nov. 20.
ISA president Tim Tevens revealed a mix
bag of news in his speech to the membership. Though convention
attendance was down 10 percent compared to the 2004 Business
Expo, he said turnout was higher than it was at the group’s
spring meeting in Toronto earlier this year.
In
addition, though ISA has added close to 200 members in the
last 15 months, it was not enough to offset the decline in
membership due to a lack of member renewals in recent years.
According to Tevens, the new members include 90 new companies
along with 98 members of the NorthAmerican Industrial
Representatives Assn., a group that closed its doors this year
and whose members were welcomed to join ISA.
Tevens
told members that the association has been “unable to plug the
hole in the bottom of our boat,” stating quite simply that ISA
is losing too many members.
ISA is taking steps
to remedy the situation, Tevens said, pointing to the
association’s new one-convention format, which begins next
year, and an incentive-based membership drive aimed at
increasing convention turnout.
Beginning next May, ISA
will hold one spring convention per year, a change that was
previously announced. (This year’s Business Expo is the last
fall meeting ISA will host.)The new membership drive puts the
burden of increasing ISA’s numbers on all current members.
Called “Member get a Member,” the program rewards members with
free registration, airline tickets and hotel stays for the
group’s May 2006 meeting in San Antonio, depending on the
number of new members they recruit.
Tevens implored
members to, “Ask not what your association can do for you; ask
what you can do for your association,” borrowing a line from
President John F. Kennedy and keeping with his presentation
theme of “founding fathers.”
Tevens, who is also
president of manufacturing firm Columbus McKinnon Corp., drew
parallels between the country’s history and that of ISA during
what was considered by many to be a turning point in the
group’s more than 100-year history. The Chicago convention is
the last of its kind, noted Tevens, but the association’s
strong group of supporters can see it through to a bright
future.
He introduced ISA’s member volunteers by
calling them, “…our own band of radicals and
visionaries.”
Tevens also explained ISA’s new value
proposition, which is: “To assist all members to increase
sales, decrease expenses and increase
profitability.”
To do that, ISA will focus on
four key areas: sales and marketing; cost reduction;
productivity; and the yearly convention.
One of
the biggest changes next year will be to the convention. The
conference booth program will become a conference and trade
fair, combining “the best of the conference booth program with
a trade show,” as Tevens explained. The education portion of
the convention will be different as well, with an expanded
program covering three tracks: management, sales and
operations.
The changes will add up to an event
packed with more information and more focused workshops,
Tevens said.
ISA’s spring convention will be held May
20-22 at the Marriott River Center in San
Antonio. | | |
YEF awards industry
scholarships
|
Sponsored
by
| ISA’s Young Executives Forum announced four winners of
the John R. Stallings Memorial Scholarships during the Chicago
Business Expo. Each winner received a scholarship to the
University of Industrial Distribution, a continuing education
program for industrial distribution professionals.
The
winners are: Lara Collier, associate product manager, Tenaquip
Ltd.; Dennis Hill, sales manager, DeLeon-Thompson, Inc.; Heath
Honbarrier, territory manager, Lane Supply Co.; and Lori
Palatine, adhesives and sealants specialist, Loctite
Industrial Division, Henkel
Technologies. | | |
China takes center
stage
One of the highlights of this
year’s ISA Business Expo was a workshop on doing business in
China hosted by Steve Thiry of The Assn. for Manufacturing
Technology.
Titled, “China: The Evolving Opportunity
and Threat for American Business,” the session gave a brief
history of the evolving Chinese economy, dispelled some myths
about doing business in China, and offered advice to companies
looking to enter the market.
Thiry talked about
economic growth and tax issues, and honed in on specific
market opportunities, such as automotive, railway and
construction, that appeal to manufacturers and distributors.
He also talked about the various legal structures for
operating in China, including representative offices, joint
ventures, wholly owned foreign enterprises, and foreign
invested commercial enterprises.
Thiry told
attendees that there is help available for U.S. companies
looking to expand abroad, such as the International Trade
Administration, the American Chamber of Commerce, and
export.gov, the U.S. government’s export portal on the
Web.
“The U.S. government actually does some very good
things in this area,” Thiry said.
Thiry’s 27-year
career in industrial sales, management and operations includes
five-and-a-half years working in Tokyo and Hong Kong managing
manufacturing, sales and distribution operations in Japan,
Australia, Korea, Singapore and India. During that time he
established joint venture operations in India and China, as
well.
Thiry worked for Ingersoll-Rand for 21
years and for Crane & Co. for five years before joining
AMT. | | |
Small distributors talk
business
|
Another highlight of the ISA
Business Expo was the Small, Specialty & Emerging Members’
Breakfast, held Sunday morning, Nov. 20. This convention
staple featured moderator Dr. William McCleave of W.R.
McCleave & Associates and a panel of industry
professionals.
The panel featured manufacturers Bill
Matthews of 3M and Steve Lippert of The Hamilton Caster &
Mfg. Co.; distributors Matt Thompson of Deleon-Thompson, Inc.
and Glenn Korff of Tooling Solutions, Inc.; and manufacturers’
rep Jim Surpless of Surpless Dunn & Co.,
Inc.
Topics covered included the role of the small,
specialty and emerging ISA member (SSEM) and how they should
be treated in the channel; joint marketing innovations and
opportunities; the threats to channel relationships; and
resolving conflict, among others.
The convention’s
Opening Session followed the SSEM meeting, and featured a
keynote presentation by Michael Abrashoff, author of “It’s
Your Ship,” a leadership book based on his experience as
Commander of the U.S.S. Benfold.
Abrashoff took
that post at the age of 36, becoming the most junior
commanding officer in the Pacific Fleet. He inherited a host
of problems, including low morale and high turnover. He was
able to turn it around, however, with a concept he calls
“GrassRoots Leadership”—a theory that empowers every
individual in an organization to share the responsibility of
achieving excellence.
Abrashoff’s story of the U.S.S.
Benfold was largely inspirational, and was met with a standing
ovation by attendees.
Other presenters at the three-day
conference included Jim Handy of Purdue University Technical
Assistance Program, whose workshop was titled, “Learn the
Skinny About Lean Part II: Administrative Value Stream
Mapping;” Melvin L.Smith, Ph.D, of Case Weatherhead School of
Management on “Emotionally Intelligent Leadership;” Steve
Willis of VitalSmarts, “Crucial Conversations, Tools for
Talking when the Stakes are High;” and Bill Hodgdon, Bill
Hodgdon Consulting, on “Managing the Sales Process.”
A
pre-convention workshop by ID’s Strictly for Sales columnist
Tom Reilly took place on Friday before the official opening of
the show. Titled “Crush Price Objections,” the seminar gave
attendees insight and ideas on ways to handle what remains one
of the sales professional’s biggest challenges—price
objections raised by existing and potential
customers.
ISA’s Business Expo ended with the
Manufacturer/Supplier Booth Program on Sunday, Nov. 20, from
11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the Distributor Conference Booth
Program on Monday, Nov. 21, from 8 a.m. to 4
p.m. | | |
ISA, by the
numbers
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Industrial
Distribution’s 59th Annual Survey of Distributor
Operations is chock full of information on distribution, and
respondents’ opinions on sales, technology spending,
acquisitions and customers moving to China. In a special
report, we boiled down the numbers to represent just the
Industrial Supply Assn.’s results, giving respondents a more
detailed look into their own membership.
To see
the report, click
here. |
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