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Consistent Innovation Will Prepare Us For The Future
As they say, “time flies when you’re having fun.” Being the first woman chair of our association and serving during its 100th year have been once in a lifetime experiences. My tenure has been a lot of fun and educational; I have learned a great deal about our industry and made many new friends along the way.
For 100 years, NAED has been the bridge in our channel: bringing distributors, manufacturers, software providers, marketing groups, and others together to tackle tough issues, take the friction out of the channel, and improve the profits and success of all stakeholders.
During the past 12 months, we have lived up to our theme, “Honor Tradition. Ignite Innovation.” This commemorative issue of TED magazine, along with the National Electrical Leadership Summit in May, will honor tradition and culminate the celebration of our 100-year-rich history and jump start the next century.
With great support from our NAED staff, we have worked on many initiatives during our centennial year designed to ignite innovation. Here are a few highlights:
• We made changes to ensure that IDEA moves to the next level and provides a long-term solution for industry data synchronization.
• We redesigned the annual meeting—now called the National Electrical Leadership Summit—to focus on industry trends and emerging issues.
• We launched the NAED industry recruiting website to help tackle the talent crunch.
• We embarked on an industry certification program for six key electrical distribution positions.
• We introduced the Life Upgrades project designed by the Manufacturers Council to increase awareness and demand for electrical products.
• We completed two research projects relating to mitigating product liability risks in the global economy and changes and opportunities in the residential construction market.
• We launched two new conferences—Women in Industry and Human Resources and Training.
• We moved the NAED staff into the association’s new office in St. Louis. The office square footage has increased 65%, but the rent costs have only increased 10%.
• We rolled out a new format for TED magazine in January to meet the changing needs of our members.
• We energized Regional Councils and spearheaded significant projects such as The Profitable Project, The Industry Recruiting Website, and Reverse Logistics Best Practices.
• We continued to attract new members and post strong financial results.
It has been a great privilege for me to serve during the centennial year and to work on projects that help increase profitability. Successful implementation of the tools developed from these projects will help ensure that we survive and thrive into the next century.
Even though my term has been just one year, I have formed many new friendships with distributors, manufacturers, and the NAED staff that will last a lifetime.
I have enjoyed serving with John Duda, Dick Waterman, and the NAED Board of Directors. I thank them all for sharing their time and talents to enhance our industry. Working with the NAED staff has also been an amazing experience. They are an extremely talented, experienced, and dedicated group of people, and they make the role of volunteer board chair very manageable and rewarding. I will miss the regular interaction with the team in St. Louis.
We are part of a very dynamic industry and association, and we should be proud of our accomplishments and excited about our future. Let’s continue to honor tradition and ignite innovation. Through consistent innovation, we will be prepared to face the challenges of the coming decades and continue to build on our industry’s amazing legacy.
Miller is CEO of Border States Electric in Fargo, N.D. Reach her at 602-206-9502 or tmiller@border-states.com.
Reprinted with full permission of The Electrical Distributor Magazine www.tedmag.com
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