What makes a talented young executive in the industrial distribution field?

Is there such a thing as a litmus test for gauging a 'star of the future' in distribution? Can they be scouted like an NFL coach might look at a wide receiver—height, weight, speed in the 40-yard dash?

Of course not, but veterans of supply chain-related industries seem to know one when they see one, at least. In describing them, many observers use words like 'involved,' 'passionate,' 'inquisitive,' and 'hard-working.'

Dick McGrath recently retired from the 3M Co. During his more than 30 years in the business, he's seen and worked with several talented leaders and can cite a few characteristics that the best (young or old) usually have.

'They were involved in everything in their organization,' McGrath says. 'Fostering and caring for their customers, developing a sales force...'

Kathy DeMarco is the executive director of the Fluid Power Distributor Assn. She has come in contact with several young distribution leaders, dating back to when they were ''little nobodies' in the industry,' she laughs. She met many of them through FPDA's young executives group.

'When I think of the people running companies, [they're] the people who've gotten involved, who dove headfirst into association activities, who have gotten to know other members,' she says. 'They've developed a network that they can tap into when they have a question or are developing a change to their business.'

Such a passion for being involved can start at an early age. Scott Jochum is in the department of industrial technology at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

'When they come in, they're just focused and want to be involved with a student association, for example,' Jochum says. 'They came ready to go.'

So a college-educated distributor is the only candidate for future stardom? Not so, says Keith Nowak, president of MPT Drives, Inc., in Madison Heights, Mich. He began his career with MPT 23 years ago.

'When I started,' he says, 'I was just a warehouse peon. And I think it was one of the smartest things I did. I did that job for a long time and certainly didn't come in here as an owner-president.'

McGrath adds that many of the well-run, well-led companies can, over time, develop a tradition of developing good executives—often times starting in the lower-paying positions. It gives many young workers a solid grasp of just what people do in various positions—a knowledge that won't be derived from a textbook.

'Many talented people have started in lower ranks of their companies,' McGrath says, referring to warehouse positions such as Nowak's. 'As a result, they'll know, specifically, what a truck driver has to do in his job, for example. ... The better people grasp this.'

So let's see: going to college is the best route to a bright distribution future—unless you start in the warehouse of a well-run company. Then again, on the other hand, if you come to a fork in the road, take it—as former distribution icon Yogi Berra once said.

Industrial Distribution spoke to a few young executives and gathered some of their experiences and ideas. Most of them had at least a few things in common—yet each stands unique in their own way.

Andrea Tysdal is the 29-year-old vice president of sales and distribution for JEM Technical in Long Lake, Minn. JEM was founded by Tysdal's parents, John and Sheryl Menge, in 1984. Nonetheless, she says that while growing up, she had little interest and less expectancy that she would be working there someday.

Tysdal was a sports medicine/health education major in college. She worked part time at JEM between classes (Gustavus Adolphus College, in St. Peter, Minn.) and during her summers, she eventually took some fluid power classes, getting her fluid power certification. She soon found that she enjoyed being part of a team, trying to do something with the family business and taking it to a higher level.

'And I've never left,' she laughs. 'There were many experiences I had there with my family over the years. Getting into the company [full time] was my way of getting involved and maybe giving back for what the company has done for me over the years.'

JEM's business has been more than solid in recent years, she says, with sales records being set the past few consecutive years. She laughs and deflects credit when it's suggested that her presence and sales acumen is the reason for that.

'My team here has the knowledge I can use, the market knowledge and industry knowledge, as far as applications go,' Tysdal says. 'They help me with different aspects.'

An important way to tap into this knowledge, she says, is to remain available and open to getting feedback, even if it isn't particularly positive.

'Be approachable when your people have bad news to tell you,' she advises, 'because you're going to need to hear it. If they are afraid of telling you, you won't have the whole picture.'

David Salathe is vice president of sales at Quality Mill Supply Co., Franklin, Ind. While he entered the business world after college, he did so after an 11-year stint in the Marines. He was a pilot in the first Gulf War (Desert Storm), and then left with the rank of major for the business world. He has also been active over the years in the Industrial Supply Assn., serving as its Young Executive Forum's president in 2004. He agrees that, after leaving the Marines, he was no 'normal' rookie in the business world.

'But I wanted to lead people. I enjoy that—making decisions on a regular basis, having success. That's my job satisfaction,' says Salathe, who is in his early 40s. 'The only real marketable skill I had at the time was managing people and leadership.'

Salathe worked at a couple of different companies before he took a sales position with Pepsi.

In the civilian world, though, he was taken aback at how many people he saw who seemed to be afraid to make a decision or to take a risk, he recalls.

'I wasn't afraid to take risks. In the Marines, they teach you to make a decision. If you fall on your sword, then stand up and pull it out and keep moving on,' he says.

Salathe came to Quality Mill four years ago and has found the working climate, and people there, more to his liking.

'We try to always be new, become better every day. We look at things every day,' he says. 'And our industry is always changing. And a big focus here in Indiana is to keep the jobs here ...We need to partner with our customers to figure out how best to do that.'

Quality Mill is a general-line, MRO distributor.

'It's a family environment,' he says. 'When I came on board here, Mike Baker [Quality Mill's president] said to me, 'You know, you're not going to be a millionaire here. But if you want to have balance and enjoy what you do...' And the people who stay here value that.'

McGrath praises those who are open to ideas and feedback, even if (or especially if), it means hearing bad news or contrary opinions.

'A good leader must be very open minded,' he explains, 'and not concerned about maybe hearing negative news.'

Joe Booth agrees with McGrath's thoughts on having to accept bad news sometimes. But the 31-year-old vice president of sales and marketing for PEC North America, says it took him a while to know exactly what that meant as far as impacting his career.

'That was one of the biggest problems I had,' Booth recalls. 'While you don't want to hear bad news, I've grown to the point where, if it isn't going to happen, tell me. Let me know. Hey, sales is sales. Everyone is going to hear 'no' more than 'yes.''

Booth graduated from the University of Nebraska-Kearney and started his career at Fuchs Machinery in Omaha, Neb., in sales. From there, he went to Omaha Standard, a manufacturer of hydraulic equipment, and a customer of his while at Fuchs.

After Omaha Standard, Booth worked for Informance International, a Midwest-based company which he describes as 'a good company. But one at which I was about as high up the ladder as I could go, unless someone left.'

He said he wanted to bring his distribution knowledge and selling skills to the software end of things while still staying in the industrial and manufacturing environment. In June 2005, he arrived at PEC's Boca Raton, Fla., location. Headquartered in Belgium, PEC specializes in software design and solutions for manufacturers and distributors worldwide. So far, Booth says, he's found it to be a good fit.

'I like sitting down and solving problems, but I also like going out and telling people about it,' he says. 'I enjoy standing in front of people and talking.'

Coming out of school, he soon learned that 'product knowledge is key. I had to be able to answer every question someone might have,' says Booth, who also is pursuing his MBA.

Booth found himself constantly asking questions of customers, wanting to know as much as possible, he recalls. It's a trait he still displays today.

'Oh, I'll ask more questions than ever now!' he laughs. 'Sometimes I'll ask questions until the customer asks me to stop... You want to know absolutely everything that is going on with the customer.'

That kind of curiosity is a positive characteristic for business leaders.

'The best ones are inquisitive about what's going on in their organization,' McGrath adds. 'Just knowing how a phone call is handled when someone calls their business is a good example.'

It's a trait that the best leaders carry with them into the field and upon meeting new customers.

'If you ask questions, then you're looking beyond the obvious,' says Jackie Britt, the financial officer at Rubber & Accessories, Inc. in Lakeland, Fla. 'That's how I've learned about the rubber industry, about conveyor belts and hose ... You have to be able to ask the questions, otherwise you won't be able to see the whole picture.'

She advises other young executives to be constantly asking 'why.'

Britt, 38, has been with the company since 1997. Rubber & Accessories is a multi-product distribution company, selling hose and conveyor belts as well as a wider range of products. And while it's a family-owned business, and her father hired her, Britt's was hardly the usual 'get your degree and come into the family business' career path.

'Growing up, I never really thought twice about ever being in this business,' Britt says.

Her father, Harry Robb, Jr., advised her from an early age that the rubber and accessories industry wasn't the business for her. She earned her bachelor's degree and MBA (Florida Southern College), and started at a large company doing financial work and cash management as a senior treasury analyst.

Britt's career goal was to become a chief financial officer. Therefore, in 1997, coming to work at Rubber & Accessories became a more plausible, even desirable, option for her. The financial position there constituted an opportunity she didn't think she could pass up. In fact, at that point in her career, her father actually broached the subject with her, Britt says.

'He knew my personality pretty well, and that I needed to do it on my own first,' she says. 'And, looking back, it was the best thing for me to develop a career elsewhere first. I'd noticed that most people in management positions had some sort of finance background. And this offered a chance to round out my profession.'

Pam Pagenkopf is the 32-year-old vice president of marketing and materials management for IDG Corp. in York, Pa. J.J. Stangel was her first employer out of college, although that company was soon acquired by IDG, she says. Like Nowak at MPT Drives, she started out in the warehouse.

'I started in the lower ranks and had the opportunity to advance,' Pagenkopf explains. 'When my training started, I would be spending time in each of the functional areas, including taking orders in the warehouse. Gradually, I gained more exposure and experience.'

Pagenkopf's eagerness to learn didn't cease at the end of her warehouse days, either. She carried a double major in marketing and business administration while in college and went on to earn her Master's degree.

At Stangel, she came in contact with two significant influences, John Zimmer (president) and Doug LaFrambois (vice president).

'Both helped me understand industrial distribution. Most of my background was in business, but more from the manufacturing side,' Pagenkopf says. 'So I didn't really have an understanding then of distribution. They gave me a good base.'

It is that base that she passes on to her staff at IDG. Pagenkopf, like some of her peers, now finds herself in the early stages of being a mentoring influence on IDG's newer hires.

'The only way any of us can continue growing and moving forward, whether a manufacturer or a supplier, is to continually look at what it is we are doing and, when necessary, make improvements on it,' Pagenkopf explains. 'I deal with internal associates to be sure we get our projects done on time, which can constantly be a balancing act.'

Like Pagenkopf, the younger distribution executives talk enthusiastically when asked about people who influenced them professionally and who mentored them at crucial points in their professional development.

'Dr. Don Envick at Nebraska-Kearney played a huge part in selling me on the ID program there, and helped me in a lot of my decisions both during and after graduating from the program,' Booth says.

Salathe had several mentors in the Marines, as you might expect. But for all intents and purposes, Salathe says he did not really find strong mentors until he began working at Quality Mill.

'I didn't have [mentors] then,' he says, referring to his pre-Quality Mill days.

'They weren't too concerned at training or growing their leadership. But in the industrial supply field, there are a lot of people who want to share their knowledge,' he says, citing Quality Mill chairman Alan Gilbert and president Mike Baker as prime examples.

It is something he hopes he is passing on to the younger Quality Mill staffers—both as a superior as well as a teacher.

'If you go through a day without learning something, you've wasted it. I believe in that,' he says.

Mentors play a vital role in another way, says Jay Smith, who recently retired as a member of the faculty at the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Business. Smith was director of the school's Industrial Distribution program. He applauds those who know when to sometimes rein in the promising, but inexperienced, future executives. Initiative, without perspective, can be a problem, Smith says.

'Initiative can sometimes get you into trouble,' Smith says. 'You might get someone who's kind of a wild hare running around and selling things that the company can't deliver ... A lot of times, though, it isn't so much the individual. It's how well the company provides direction in which they would like their market to go.'

It is a mentoring/supervising approach that Tysdal is careful to maintain at JEM Technical.

'Sometimes, you need to have an idea of what that big picture is and then be able to steer the details in a certain direction,' Tysdal says. 'You need to be able to see the whole forest instead of just the trees.'

Britt cites her father as a mentoring influence. But she also calls a previous boss, Art Schuffart at Breed Technologies, 'one of the best I ever had. I'd never seen a manager operate quite like he did. He was extremely smart and pushed me to be more than I thought I could be...'

There is one other characteristic all successful executives still need: work ethic.

'The biggest thing is the ability and desire to work beyond what you have to,' Nowak says. 'I can get a guy in the warehouse who I might have to beg to work 10 minutes overtime, and I'll see he won't amount to anything.

'But I do have one or two people here whom I can already see will go far. That's what can separate it: the mentality of the person who quits at 5 o'clock helps determine his or her future.'

Smith also emphasizes the work habit as perhaps the most important intangible trait of all.

'They may not have a great deal of training or executive education,' Smith says, 'but the key thing can be, which one of these young men and women will get up off their butts and get it done?'