In the 3rd Quarter 2014 issue of The MHEDA Journal, Elite Supply Chain Solutions President Scott Hennie wrote, "As you look at the distributors who have been recognized by their manufacturer partners, take note at how many of these companies are MHEDA members. Along those lines, add up the number of years of successful business being celebrated by MHEDA member companies. I don’t believe this is because of luck or hopeful thinking, but the result of creative visions, strong planning, aggressive goals and flexible execution of business plans." At the time, Hennie was serving as MHEDA’s Board President. In that same article, he set an aggressive goal for MHEDA and its member companies. "Let’s set a MHEDA goal for 2015 – 100 percent of the manufacturer-honored distributors are MHEDA members! We can get there with creative visions, a proven planning process and utilizing the resources provided by MHEDA." As you can see on the preceding pages, MHEDA did not meet that 100 percent goal, though MHEDA members again made up a strong majority of the list. But that challenge that Hennie laid out still resonates within the MHEDA Office and the Board of Directors. At this year’s February Board Meeting, the Membership Committee discussed the goals and directives it had set out for this year and going forward. The very first goal, which was a directive from MHEDA’s Executive Committee, was to build a promotional campaign around the dealer award percentages. This year’s Membership Committee Chair is Mike Wall, President of Container Systems, Inc. I had the opportunity to speak with Mike about why he thinks MHEDA members are routinely ranked as the top distributors by manufacturers and suppliers in the industry and what we can do as an association to eventually fulfill the aggressive goal that Scott Hennie […]