What do online shoe sales and heavy-duty parts sales have in common? They both can succeed with the help of the right kind of corporate culture.
Corporate culture will be front and center during the seventh annual Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week, Jan. 23-26, 2012, at The Mirage in Las Vegas.
Co-chairs Ken Duval, president of Canadian Wheel Industries, and Mike Betts, president of Betts Spring Company, along with Vice Chairman Tom Stewart, president and CEO of Carolina Rim and Wheel, have led a planning team to develop an educational program surrounding the theme, "Corporate Culture: The Foundation for Success."
Robert Richman of Zappos Insights will be the keynote speaker, kicking off the conference during the opening general session.
Zappos, the popular online retailer and number six on Fortune magazine's Best Place to Work list, does more than sell shoes and clothing. It's dedicated to helping businesses develop and nurture corporate culture, and even started an offshoot, Zappos Insights, to do that. More than 1,000 people tour the Zappos headquarters every month to learn how they can create a culture where people actually enjoy their Monday mornings.
Richman will share how the Zappos family has learned to serve its two most valuable assets: its employees and its customers, and the exact ways that you can create world-class service and culture in your own company.
Other educational sessions:
- Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, will look at the impact of the economy on the heavy-duty industry, while also examining the potential effects of federal policy issues.
- Annette Sandberg, CEO of TransSafe Consulting, will educate distributors on the impact of the federal government's new CSA enforcement program on customers, and how they can help customers comply while growing their business. Sandberg served as the administrator and deputy administrator of FMCSA when CSA started, and was deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- Edgar Papke will present "The Culture Key: Innovation, Accountability and the Human Art of Business." The Papke Business Alignment System was designed to provide a framework for better understanding organizational culture by increasing a leader's ability to better assess the culture of his or her own organization and business.
- Todd Cohen, principal of SalesLeader LLC, will present "Does Your Organization Have a Sales Team or a Sales Culture?" Cohen's presentation focuses on how to build and nurture a sales culture that engages everyone in the sales process. He teaches that the success of a sales team depends on a company-wide commitment to a robust sales culture, including working collaboratively with non-sales personnel.
"HDAW's continued strategic objectives have become a cornerstone for our industry's aftermarket," said Betts. "The forethought and focus on planning a program that responds to last year's attendees' evaluations will pay meaningful benefits for the 2012 attendees. It's the single best place to be to advance the aftermarket industry."
HDAW '12 also includes networking opportunities, a 100,000-square-foot product expo, and prescheduled one-on-one meetings between exhibiting suppliers and distributors that are members of one of the 14 HDAW sponsor organizations.
HDAW is presented by a joint operating committee composed of industry leaders from American Council of Frame and Alignment Specialists (ACOFAS), Association of Diesel Specialists (ADS), Automotive Electric Association (AEA), Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network (CVSN), HDA-Truck Pride, Heavy Duty Distribution Association (HDDA), Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association (HDMA), APRA's Heavy Duty Remanufacturing Group (HDRG), International Truck Parts Association (ITPA), Overseas Automotive Council (OAC), Power Heavy Duty, Service Specialists Association (SSA), Truck Frame and Axle Repair Association (TARA) and Vipar Heavy Duty.
More info at www.hdaw.org.
From the October/November 2011 issue of HDAJ.
