Registration Now Open For UnleashWD 2014

The 2014 Innovation Summit will be in Chicago on Oct. 29-30. UnleashWD is the only innovation summit for the wholesale distribution industry.

The innovation journey continues on a familiar date and with a keynote speaker that will inspire.

The third annual UnleashWD innovation summit will continue its effort to promote innovation and fresh ideas in the wholesale distribution industry on Oct. 29-30 in Chicago. Andrew Berlin, the CEO of Berlin Packaging and the owner of the minor league baseball team the South Bend (Ind.) Silver Hawks, will serve as one of the keynote speakers.

“The UnleashWD community is privileged to have a business leader of Andrew’s stature join us,” Dirk Beveridge, Founder of UnleashWD said. “Andrew is a titan within wholesale distribution, but his talk is going to focus on the lessons he has learned as a baseball team owner. He is a game changer and his speech will be one as well.”

Beveridge founded the UnleashWD innovation summit based on reinventing the values of innovation, thought leadership, company culture and business model design for the wholesale distribution industry. The conference sought to take the best ideas from all of business and to lift and shift them into the wholesale distribution industry. Lift and shift is the UnleashWD concept of applying ideas from outside of wholesale distribution and applying them to the industry.

UnleashWD features a line-up of innovative business leaders from outside of wholesale distribution. They speak during 18-minute presentations, which are followed by lift and shift workshops that place the speakers’ lessons into the context of wholesale distribution.

“We have grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years,” Dirk Beveridge, Founder of UnleashWD said. “We have created a forum to promote change within an industry that desperately needs it. We started something here a couple of years ago, and we are starting to see the results.”

Registration is now open at UnleashWD.com.

Ken Hutton named ISA Interim Executive Vice President

Hutton steps in from managing director of ISA.

ISA President Michael Carr announced today that Kenneth R. Hutton, former Managing Director of the Industrial Supply Association (ISA), has agreed to serve as interim Executive Vice President while ISA initiates a search for candidates to replace long-time ISA executive John Buckley, who passed away in February. Hutton assumed the interim role effective March 3, 2014.

“We have a great history with Ken and we’re very excited that he is available to help us through our transition to a new executive,” Carr said. “Ken is a very experienced professional and he is a perfect fit because of his work with ISA in the past. Together with our volunteer leaders, current staff and our management company partners at Fernley & Fernley, the officers and board members are confident the organization is in good hands. We look forward to a successful 2014 convention and to finding the right candidate to succeed our friend and colleague, John Buckley.”

In the interim capacity, Hutton will lead, direct, manage or support all functions of the association. He will serve as primary executive support and liaison to ISA Officers, and Board of Directors; represent ISA in external relations, including key industry coalitions and media; and assist in the search for ISA’s new Executive Vice President, among other duties.

Hutton brings 43 years of diverse industry experience to the interim position, having managed associations for over 25 years. He served 19 years as Executive Vice President for the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America (WMMA) in addition to his prior role with ISA. Hutton was also a past Executive Director for the Association Management Company Institute (AMCI).

A graduate of Syracuse University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Hutton also holds an M.B.A. from The Darden School at the University of Virginia. Hutton and his wife, Jeanne, have two adult daughters and three grandchildren. The couple resides in Kennett Square, Pa., where Hutton sits on a variety of boards for various community and church groups.

Learn more at www.isapartners.org

All at BSW Consulting offer their condolences to ISA and John Buckley's family.

It is with great sadness that the Industrial Supply Association announces the sudden death of John Buckley at the age of 66 on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 of an apparent heart attack. John served as Executive Vice President of ISA since July 2004. Known for his energy, passion, knowledge of the industry and team building skill, John will be sorely missed.

John began his long and illustrious career in the wholesale distribution industry 30 years ago. Starting out in the member services side of the association management business, he held a variety of positions working on retention and recruitment through research and economic reporting. He spent 25 years with the National Paper Trade Association and was one of the founders of the Paper and Plastics Education Research Foundation. He also published the award winning association magazine, Sales & Marketing News.

John served on the Board of Directors of NAW, the Distribution Research and Education Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. For 20 years, John represented the U.S. at EUROPA and the Common Market Congress of the Paper Industry. He was an advisor to four startup companies in the real estate development, technology and digital advertising areas.

John was ISA's chief staff executive and he also served on the ISA Education Foundation Board of Trustees and the Advisory Board for the Industrial Careers Pathways.

John is survived by his wife of 42 years, Barbara Curley Buckley, and his most beloved daughter Alana. He will be missed by his brothers, Michael and Richard, and their wives Ellen and Elaine. He was devoted to his nieces, Sharon and Mariah Hughes, Lauren Solomon, Sarabeth, Emily and Julia Buckley and his nephew, Christopher Hughes.

To leave a message for the family please go to http://johnbuckleycommemoration.wordpress.com.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Manhasset Women's Coalition Against Breast Cancer, P.O. Box 1007, Manhasset, NY 11030. Please specify that your gift should be used for the Coalition's Outreach Program in John’s name.

Despite the grief over this sudden loss, ISA headquarters will provide continuity of operations with the support of the ISA Officers, Board and its team members, Joe Casey, Gary Cheeseman, Melissa Jidenma, and Mary Ritchie.

SPA Pricing Strategy Seminar: Mastering Strategic Pricing in a New Economy

Join SPA on Friday February 07, 2014 at Ritz Carlton, Fort Lauderdale, FL.

 

Like never before, pricing strategy, analytics and cultural changes can set the stage for significant gains in shareholder wealth. Companies that excel in pricing will enjoy faster growth, stronger customer relationships, market-leading profitability and superior capital markets opportunities.

In this seminar you will hear from distribution and manufacturing industry experts and from a panel of SPA clients. They will discuss how to increase your margins (typically by 2 – 4 points!) and how to improve pricing discipline in your company.

Anyone responsible for making pricing decisions in their company will benefit from this seminar.  There is no cost to attend, but enrollment is limited, so please register now.

To receive an agenda or to ask questions about this seminar or hotel reservations, please contact us at: info@strategicpricing.com or call 216-455-1544.

Steve Epner Named Chairman of New St. Louis Nonprofit

Brown Smith Wallace Principal and Consulting Group Founder selected to lead Innovate Venture Mentoring Service

ST. LOUIS (December 18, 2013) Steve Epner, CSP, principal and founder of the Brown Smith Wallace consulting group, has been named chairman of the board for the non-profit organization, Innovate Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS). The organization is an offshoot of Innovate St. Louis, a substantial contributor to St. Louis’ growing entrepreneurial culture.
Innovate St. Louis plans to transition the IVMS organization to the new leadership team in the early first quarter of 2014. The new leadership team, headed by Steve Epner, will lead the organization in becoming a free-standing, self-sustaining entity after six years of accomplishments.

“My goal is to create a sustainable organization to continue founding chairman Bill Peck’s vision of supporting early stage business ventures in the region,” said Epner. “We have a lot of work to do, but are fortunate to have a solid foundation. I very much appreciate the board’s confidence in me.”

The new leadership team will work with IVMS’ staff and mentors to accelerate a refresh of IVMS’s programming, operations and funding strategy. IVMS will organize active committees comprised of the many mentors and ventures already part of the IVMS family.

“We are pleased to have Steve lead such an innovative organization and continue to be a part of the local entrepreneurial community,” said Harvey Wallace, managing partner at Brown Smith Wallace. “We are always looking for new ways to engage with startups and reaffirm our firm’s commitment to supporting small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit.”

About IVMS
IVMS was founded in 2014 as an operating unit of Innovate St. Louis, to assist early stage entrepreneurs in launching high-technology, high-growth businesses. IVMS provides free business planning assistance to entrepreneurs in the form of high-impact mentoring teams, comprised of volunteers who are either experienced entrepreneurs or subject matter experts in their fields. Over the past 6 years, IVMS has assisted over 320 client entrepreneurs, who have launched 220 ventures. To date, these ventures have collectively achieved over a 65% survival rate (over twice the national average), have attracted over $70 million in investment, and have created over 800 jobs in the St. Louis region.


About Brown Smith Wallace
Brown Smith Wallace is the second-largest locally owned full-service CPA and business advisory firm in Missouri with more than 200 employees. The firm was nationally recognized as a “Best of the Best Firm” in 2013, by INSIDE Public Accounting and as an Accounting Today “Best Accounting Firm to Work For” in 2013. Brown Smith Wallace is the only accounting firm in St. Louis to receive either of these designations this year. For more information, visit www.bswllc.com or call 314-983-1200.

Epicor Releases New Version Of Eclipse ERP For Wholesale Distributors

Epicor Software Corporation announced the general availability of version 8.7.7 of its wholesale distribution enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, Epicor Eclipse. The new version delivers enhancements designed to further streamline business processes for distributors, leading to increased productivity and enriched customer experience. Epicor Eclipse now features EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) 810 improvements, Small Project Job enhancements, and Lien Tracking improvements, as well as the ability to track customer-owned inventory, create central Purchase Orders (POs) “on the fly,” and automatically assign lot numbers and print lot labels. Additionally, a new core process has been introduced to handle customer-owned inventory, known as Direct Through Stock (DTS) Inventory. The process begins with the original quote and goes through creating Direct Through Stock purchase orders. A new Direct Through Stock Queue populates the Epicor Eclipse database with all of the sales order, purchase order, and product information. Using the Direct Through Stock Queue, distributors can create shipments to send material to customers.

For more information, please visit www.epicor.com.

More Management Changes at Epicor

Earlier this year, Epicor hired Donna Troy, a former Dell, SAP and IBM executive, to lead the distribution business.  This week, Epicor announced that Pervez Quereshi, the CEO and architect of the Epicor/Activant merger, stepped down “to pursue new opportunites.”  Succeed him as President and CEO is Joe Cowan, an executive at Online Resources (an online banking and payment solutions provider) and Interwoven (a content management software provider). 

 

Read the TEC Eval Article to learn more. 

 

Steve Epner, BSW Consulting founder, will be at the Epicor Executive retreat next week and will report on his meeting with Donna and Joe.