From the NAW Blog:

It’s 2019 and more than 197 million people visit Amazon each month to browse more than 12 million products, according to BigCommerce. The numbers go up every day. But distributors don’t need to be afraid of Amazon. They need to innovate and sell to customers the way today’s customers want to buy. It’s that simple.

NAW’s archive of past webinars provides you with the best content from distribution's leading business and supply chain experts! 

Discover these two on-demand webinars that feature first looks at NAW's brand-new study:
Innovate to Dominate: The 12th Edition in the Facing the Forces of Change® Series

Welcome to the Age of B2B Innovation

NORWALK, CT - Fastener Fair USA, North America’s fastest-growing exposition for the fastener industry, will hold its third annual trade show and conference in May in Charlotte, NC, a major manufacturing hub. The event for the entire fastener supply chain runs May 18-20, 2020 at the Charlotte Convention Center.

NAW has just sent letters to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting that their agencies open an investigation into the General Services Administration’s (GSA) proposed e-Marketplace platform (Section 846) and Amazon’s unfair and anti-competitive practices and processes.

NAW believes that GSA should be fostering maximum competition at this stage of Section 846’s implementation.  Even though GSA identified three credible e-commerce purchasing channels, GSA’s latest Request for Proposal (RFP), Commercial e-Marketplace Acquisition (October 1, 2019), confines its pilot test to only one model, that of the e-marketplace portal, the Amazon platform.  All other e-commerce models have been excluded.

Effectively representing your interests in Washington is an ongoing, daily process involving many varied steps and actions. It is not always easy to see the full scope of this unless you are actually here in Washington. So, we list below some of the key legislative coalitions which NAW leads or helps manage, and actions the coalitions and/or NAW specifically have taken on those key issues. We also provide a sampling of the meetings in which we participate, regularly or for specific purposes, as part of our continuing effort to fight for the wholesale distribution industry in Congress and the regulatory agencies – in this case from May through September 2019. If you would like to see additional information on the issues mentioned below, please go to: www.naw.org

TAXES:

A memorial service for Pleas Ronald (Ron) Manley, 66, of Auburn, Alabama will be Monday, October 14, 2019 at 1:00pm, at Church of the Highlands (Auburn East Campus, 2001 East Samford Avenue, Auburn, AL). Pastor Wren Aaron will officiate the service. A reception will be held immediately following the service at Saint Michael the Archangel Catholic Church (1100 North College Street, Auburn, AL).

Mr. Manley, died Wednesday, October 10, 2019 at Bethany House in Auburn, Alabama. He was born January 16, 1953 in Gadsden, Alabama to the late Pleas Miller and Mattie Lou Manley. Ron graduated from Auburn University in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He married the love of his life, Pennie Wood, on June 22, 1974.

(October 10, 2019, Washington, DC) — The NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence is pleased to announce its newest, groundbreaking research study, Optimizing Channel Profitability: A Playbook to Align Manufacturer–Distributor–Customer Relationships, based on a consortium conducted by Texas A&M University’s Global Supply Chain Laboratory. Please go to www.naw.org/ocp or call 202.872.0885 to learn more and to order copies.  Quantity discounts of 15–50% apply when ordering two or more copies.

As manufacturers face new competitive challenges, distributors alter their capabilities, and customers change their requirements, the path forward keeps shifting.

Many manufacturers have not updated their channel policies in a decade, while wholesaler distributors have undergone significant changes in terms of online disruptions by non-traditional competitors, multi-generational workforce dynamics, digital transformation challenges, evolving salesforce structure, and so forth.

SANTA CLARITA, CA (Oct. 3, 2019) – Fastener Training Week, an advanced technical training program, is scheduled Dec. 2-6 in La Miranda, CA. This LA area training is for fastener distributors and manufacturers, end users and original equipment manufacturers. The course is offered by The Fastener Training Institute, a leading non-profit organization that provides training on fastener products and standards, in partnership with the Industrial Fasteners Institute.

Instead of seven separate one-day classes, Fastener Training Week offers five intensive days of education and plant tours as part of the acclaimed FTI Certified Fastener Specialist™ (CFS) advanced technical training program. After completing this invaluable industry training in a small group environment and passing a final exam, attendees are eligible for the Certified Fastener Specialist™ (CFS) designation.

The 8th Fastener Fair Stuttgart, International Exhibition for the Fastener and Fixing Industry, ended last week after three very successful show days at the Stuttgart exhibition grounds in Germany. A total of 12,070 visitors from 90 countries came to Stuttgart to discover the latest trends and products from all areas of fastener and fixing technology and to network with other industry experts. This represents a further growth in visitor numbers by 3% compared to the previous event.

A total of 987 exhibitors from 45 countries presented the complete spectrum of fastener and fixing technologies on a total net exhibition space of 22,200 square metres: industrial fasteners and fixings, construction fixings, assembly and installation systems and fastener manufacturing technology. This represents a further increase in exhibitor numbers by around 10% and a further increase in exhibition space of 5% which resulted in the biggest Fastener Fair Stuttgart to date.

The International Fastener Expo (IFE), the largest and most established business-to-business tradeshow of every type of fastener, machinery and tooling, and industrial-related products in North America, is now accepting speaker submissions from fastener industry professionals and motivational and team building presenters for the Sept. 17-19 show conference schedule. The annual conference schedule features experts on technology, key laws and regulations, business solutions, testing and inspecting, management and leadership, and many more topics affecting the fastener industry.

New at IFE 2018, the conference schedule was expanded to include an additional day and featured 18 educational sessions; IFE 2019 plans to be just as jam-packed. Among the most popular sessions in 2018, Vanessa Sciarra, vice president for legal affairs and trade and investment policy, National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), presented “U.S. Tariffs and Trade Policies - What to Expect in 2019,” a rundown on current trade policy, to a full house of engaged attendees. Video of her presentation is available for purchase at https://www.fastenershows.com/2019/02/12/us-tariffs-trade-policies-fastener-industry/.

This article is available courtesy of Caliper.

With the number of jobs and applicants increasing, many professionals are turning to advanced tools such as personality assessments to aid them in the hiring process to determine if potential candidates are the right fit for their company. But what is a personality assessment?

This article is available courtesy of Caliper.

If classic movies like Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), Tin Men (1987), Used Cars (1980)—or more recent hits like Wolf of Wall Street (2013)—have taught us anything, it’s that sales is not for those of a weak disposition.

Fastener Fair Stuttgart 2019, the world’s leading exhibition for the fastener and fixing industry, will take place from 19 – 21 March 2019 in halls 1, 3 and 5 at the Stuttgart Exhibition Grounds in Germany. Due to a further expansion of the exhibition space this year, offering a total of 22,000 net square metres in total, the exhibition has already exceeded the total stand space of the previous event in 2017. More than 97% of the total available stand space has been booked so far.

Around 900 companies from 40 countries will be present with a stand at the 8^th International Exhibition for the Fastener and Fixing Industry in March 2019. Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France are the major European exhibitor countries. Asian exhibitors mainly come from Turkey, China, India and Taiwan.

The NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence, the research arm of the National Association of WholesalerDistributors (NAW), is pleased to announce the release of Creating Innovations and Shaping the Future of Business: A Look at Commerce, Technology, and Human Forces in Distribution, the first-ever Facing the Forces of Change® challenge paper, based on research to date, including 25 innovation ideas to kick-start internal management discussions.. Please visit www.naw.org/creating-innovations or call 202.872.0885 to learn more and order copies. Quantity discounts of 15–50% apply when ordering two or more copies.

About this Challenge Paper

Hall of Fame at the International Fastener Expo Announced
Industry veterans and thought leaders Bob Sachs and Robbie Gilchrist are added to the list of honored inductees for the 2018 IFE Awards

Los Angeles, CA (August 17, 2018) – The International Fastener Expo (IFE) has announced the winners of the 2018 Hall of Fame Awards. Each year, The Fastener Hall of Fame recognizes industry professionals who have made significant and enduring contributions to the industrial fastener industry on a national or global scale. In addition to their contributions, the award recipients are selected on the role they’ve played in the industry, their leadership skills in administrative and policy areas, and the educational contributions they’ve made to their companies and staff. This year latest recipients, Bob Sachs and Robbie Gilchrist, will join other honored industry members, including but not limited to inventors, business leaders, and educators.
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The Gilchrist Foundation has awarded five scholarships from the 2018 applicants.  Congratulations to the recipients. We wish them well and are pleased to assist them with their education. 

They are as follows and their sponsoring companies;

Tariffs are dominating the news these days with the story changing almost hourly. What countries or industries will President Trump target next? Who will retaliate?

Freedonia’s new white paper draws upon the experience of its industry analysts to assess the potential impact of the latest tariffs on industries ranging from appliances to wine. This new analysis provides quick, easy to read summaries of how tariffs could impact 20 key US industries.

The World Trade Organization announced today the imposition of new tariffs on certain fastener products imported from the U.S. by European Union countries, effective June 22, 2018:

A Press Release from the Fastener Training Institute

Officer elections were held at our most recent Board of Directors meeting. We’re pleased to announce the following: