This is the first in an occasional series of interviews with Industrial Distribution's Big 50 executives. In April, we asked Idelle Wolf, president of Barnes Distribution, No. 20 on our 2006 list of the largest industrial distributors, to talk to us about the industry, what's going on at Barnes Distribution, and her plans for the company since officially taking over as president this year.

Wolf joined Barnes Distribution as chief operating officer in May of 2000. In December 2004, she was named president of Barnes Distribution North America; she became president of Barnes Distribution in January, 2006.

Industrial Distribution: What do you find most interesting about the field of industrial distribution?

Idelle Wolf: The whole field of industrial distribution is interesting. But one of the things that you learn is that it's also very complex. Everyone who initially joins distribution says, 'You don't make anything. How hard can it be?' But in reality, it's difficult...When you look at the market, there are 10 million MRO items, lots of competition, and multiple channels to market. Because there are so many channels and so many different markets that you can serve, I think the greatest challenge is trying to understand what the customer's need is and what your solution is for that customer. For Barnes, the solution is vendor managed inventory tailored to meet each specific customer's need—managing the small parts that we're supplying the customer. It's our job to organize the inventory, figure out what the customer needs, take the order, come back and put the order away.

ID: Where do you want to take Barnes Distribution in the future?

Wolf: We do a strategic plan every year, and we recently completed our strategic plan for the next five years—so, we take a five-year view of the world. At a high level, our plans are to accelerate growth—both organic and through acquisitions. Corporate accounts has been a strategic initiative of ours, and we've been very successful with it, so we'll continue to target that area.

ID: What are the most significant trends shaping the industry?

Wolf: One trend that feeds into our strategic plan is that more and more of the [customer's] buying decisions are being made in a central corporate office, in the purchasing department. Over the last three to five years, that work really has moved more into the customer's purchasing department—the boardroom presentation environment. And this is not only for large corporate accounts, but for smaller accounts as well. That's one thing that's really changed, and that's been a strategic growth area for us.

Also, the business world is becoming more global. Many of Industrial Distribution's top 50 distributors are owned by foreign companies, and that's driving some of the activity in the marketplace. The other issue, of course, is consolidation, which has picked up again.

ID: What is Barnes Distribution doing to recruit new talent?

Wolf: I'm looking at this issue from two sides: recruiting and retaining. As far as top talent, we've been successful by promoting internal talent, and we've acquired top talent with some of our acquisitions, as well. Also, Barnes Group has an extensive talent assessment program. [The company] will look at high-potential people, and if we don't have a position for them, we've been successful at creating a position for them.

For recruiting, we have introduced TAP (Talent Asset Program) to recruit from college campuses high-potential employees into a management training program. We have also expanded our recruiting team to target individuals with military backgrounds. As a global company, we are always searching for opportunity to have a more diverse workforce.

The other thing we focus on is engagement and opportunity. I spend a lot of time visiting with [employees] and telling them what is going on in the business—what our plans are, how we compare with competitors. That helps engage people [in your business]. One way to avoid having to do too much hiring is to keep the high-potential employees that you have.

ID: What are some other significant issues facing your company today?

Wolf: Mitigating cost pressures in the market. We provide our customers with solutions to their problems, and one of these is to help them drive cost out of their business. Our critical mass has allowed us to strategically source quality products from low-cost countries, offering us a competitive advantage.

ID: What role is technology playing in your company?

Wolf: We offer customers sophisticated e-commerce integration methods that allow them to easily have MRO products flow through their e-procurement, ERP and other operating systems. Technology has played, and will continue to play, a significant role in our business in other ways, including warehouse management, vendor collaboration, business intelligence, and sales force automation systems. Technology is a differentiator for us.