This Week in IDEA | August 30, 2012

Tim Powers of Hubbell Incorporated Recognized for Leadership in eBusiness

Tim Powers, chairman and CEO of Hubbell Incorporated, wa­s recognized in the August issue of electroindustry, a NEMA publication, for driving eBusiness momentum, inspiring collaboration and progress. Powers is a source of vision and stability for the industry, volunteering as a powerful advocate of IDEA’s industry initiatives and positioning his company as a leader in eBusiness, sustainability and cost-savings success. Tim is truly deserving of the honor, and IDEA and many others in the industry are sincerely grateful for his support.

Comments from colleagues:

“Tim is truly one of the great leaders within the electrical industry. I believe that one sign of a great leader is a willingness to give back to the industry. Tim has made a remarkable impact on both manufacturers and distributors through his involvement with organizations such as NEMA and IDEA. ”
– Robert A. Reynolds, Jr., Executive Chairman, Graybar

“Tim is a very collaborative leader. He gets involved quickly; in the case of IDEA, as chairman, he provided the leadership needed to add credibility to the effort. He motivated those within Hubbell to prepare their businesses for populating the IDW with the marketing data sorely needed by our distributors to increase pr­oductivity now and in the future.”
­– Bob Murphy, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Hubbell

View the article on pages 4-5 in electroindustry (ei) magazine>

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Final Segment of “Climbing the E-Biz Mountain” Podcast Series

Throughout this four-part podcast series, we’ve covered vision, milestones, measurement, collaboration and much more. In the final segment, reps from Cooper Industries and Border States Electric (BSE) discuss how eBusiness efforts shift over time and the impact of trends such as mobile.

Participants:

• Samer Shehadeh, EDI Manager, Co­oper Industries
• Lorraine Mott, Project Leader Electronic Commerce, Cooper Crouse-Hinds
• Greg Thrall, Senior VP Operations & IT (retired), BSE
• Jason Archbold, Marketing Catalog Supervisor, BSE
• Sonia Coleman, Moderator

Sneak Peak of Segment #4:

“Our efforts are really shifting into less and less about gathering content and more and more about using and the visibility of that content. And I would expect that to just continue to grow. So we’ve gathered it, we’ve enriched it, now how do we get this information in front of more customers and employees? How do we use it more efficiently?”
– Jason Archbold, Border States Electric

“I think it’s critical for all manufacturers and distributors to address mobility. Whether it be the iPad, the iPhone, the Droid, the key is to leverage the technologies to be more innovative in the industry. We need to understand that technology changes and get ahead of the game… staying on top of these technologies, whether it’s mobile, the web, or the latest technology to build out a storefront.”
­­– Samer Shehadeh, Cooper Industries

Listen to the 4th segment of the “Climbing the E-Biz Mountain” podcast series>

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Millennial Managers in the Workplace

­­­According to tED Magazine, the Millennial generation, defined as those born betwe­en 1977 and 1998, will make up 50% of the world’s employees by 2014. Many of these employees are assuming management roles at increasingly younger ages than ever before in the Unite­d States. These new leaders differ from the previous generation, Generation X, in strengths, values and leadership styles. tED Magazine also comments that older generations may have mixed feelings about the Millennials, but this new generation of management promises to bring the skills and new ideas necessary to guide the workplace into the future. Below are additional perspectives on this topic from Forbes, UNC and Mashable.com.

 The Future of Leadership

This tED Magazine article provides an electrical industry perspective on who the Millennials are as workers and how they function as leaders. The Learning Café, a consulting firm specializing in learning solutions for businesses, interviewed 50 Millennial managers and emerging leaders in the electrical industry. Participants were asked a fundamental question, “What will make your generation of leaders different from previous generations of leaders?” Read the tED Magazine article online on p. 52 to learn more about Millennials>

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Maximizing Millennials

University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Young Entrepreneur’s Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurship as a means to overcome youth unemployment and underemployment, teamed up to compile research on how to nurture this idealistic, social and entrepreneurial generation. Together they created an infographic that details the “who”, “how” and “why” of managing Millennial in the workplace. This infographic also received coverage from Forbes and Mashable.com. View the infographic on the MBA@UNC Blog>

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The New Millennial Values

This Forbes article examines new Millennial values and how leaders of other generations can utilize these values in the workplace. With the Millennials rapidly entering the business world, business leaders realize the importance of understanding who Millennials are, what they want, and how to keep­ them at their company. Read the Forbes article online>

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Available for Sale in Canada? Let Us Know!

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According to an IDEA survey of manufacturers, over 70% of a manufacturer’s items could potentially be sold to U.S., Canadian or additional global markets. However, if a distributor is trying to identify if an item is available in their country, they’re usually only able to tell if the manufacturer provides a price sheet in their currency. With the new Country Code feature in the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW), manufacturers can specify in which countries a company or brand conducts business and designate Individual items as “available for sale” for applicable countries. ­

As an example, even with the absence of a price sheet, distributors can confirm which products are available to them by running a report on which manufacturers sell to Canada. Distributors can also run an item report ensuring they view only products that comply with Canadian standards. By marking the Country Code, manufacturers increase the visibility of their company to distributors and expand the market for their items to more countries.

Please contact your IDEA Account Manager if you have additional questions about the Country Code feature.

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Leadership & The Art of Uncomfortable

Denice R. Hinden of Managance Consulting & Coaching is a facilitator and executive coach with a specialty in energizing leaders to new levels of performance. In her blog post below, she shares a poignant memory and her perspective on leadership and discomfort.

While exercising recently I listened to a 1998 This American Life broadcast about summer camp. I laughed til' I cried remembering fondly my camp experiences in the 1970's and realizing that even after 20 years, camp is still the same - great songs, crushes on counselors, amazing friends, a sense of belonging, and personal growth. We were different at the end of camp than at the beginning. Leadership is like that too. Every experience makes us different compared to where we start, but where we start determines where we go. In the thought provoking article "Leaning into Discomfort," we learn about three leaders who are committed to profound social change. They understand that disagreement, disbelief, and even disrespect come with the territory, yet they stay their course, leading in ways that build support, inspire hope, and value different perspectives. At Managance we believe that everyone is a leader at work and in our lives. Discomfort is a natural part of that and we have a choice about how we embrace it. When we look for opportunities in our discomfort we begin to find new possibilities.

Got 15 minutes? Grow Your Leadership! Managance Consulting and Coaching will be exhibiting at the IDEA E-Biz Forum and hosting confidential 15 min leadership coaching conversations on Thursday Sept. 27th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Coaching (as defined by the International Coach Federation) is a thought-provoking and creative series of conversations designed to inspire professional and personal potential. It includes the opportunity for new awareness and insights, trying out new ideas, solving problems, strategic thinking, and strengthening skills and abilities.

Denice will work on any topic that would be helpful to you and she guarantees at least one valuable take-away to fuel your leadership. If you are interested, please feel free to schedule your 15 minute appointment in advance by contacting Denice at .

Find out more about Managance and view all 2012 exhibitors>

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Congratulations to tED Magazine "Best of the Best" Award Winners

Content courtesy of tED magazine

For 43 years, tED Magazine has recognized the electrical industry's top marketing initiatives with its Best of the Best Award competition. This year's awards honored 38 electrical distributors and suppliers in 14 categories for stellar campaigns launching in 2011. ­Best of the Best Judges Katrina Olson and Shad Thomas presented the awards at a sp­ecial ceremony during NAED's 2012 AdVenture Marketing Conference on August 21. Every year, the publication selects one distributor and one supplier to represent the overall best marketing practices for the industry. This year's "best overall" winners are Connexion and Southwire.

View the full article on tEDmag.com to see all 2012 winners>

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New IDW Platinum Band of Excellence Manufacturers

Congratulations to the following manufacturers that have recently achieved the PlatinumBand of Excellence, the most elite status in the industry’s new banding program which measures the amount of marketing content manufacturers provide to the Industry Data Warehouse (IDW)­ for their distributors. These companies are now providing marketing content for 75% - 100% of their stock items!­

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View all manufact­urers with Bands of Excellence ratings>

Contact your Data Quality Analyst at IDEA or email to find out where your company stands and how to achieve IDEA’s Platinum banding level.

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New Synchronization Customers

As a 1SYNC Data Pool On-Board Solution (OBS) partner, IDEA implements suppliers that subscribe to the 1SYNC data pool using the IRD CERICOMX® Data Synchronization Platform. IDEA was recently assigned 14 suppliers:

• JYC International, Inc.
• Protective Coating Company
• Ahava NA, LLC
• Sun Country Foods, Inc.
• Asia Trans & Co. of Kailua
• American Apparel Trading Corp.
• Ermis Labs, LLC
• The Sakura Tree, Inc.
• Vanilla Sugar Party
• Joint Force
• PC and Associates Corp.
• Taylors Candy, Inc.
• D.I. Manufacturing LLC
• Let Water Be Water 

These companies will be trained to use IRD CERICOMX®, an online catalog that suppliers use to register product data with the GS1 Registry® and GDSN via the 1SYNC Data Pool. Suppliers also use this solution to publish product data to demand partners including retailers such as Lowe’s and Walmart.

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