FEDA Learn Institute
Building One Future for Distribution
The FEDA Education Foundation welcomes Mike Adelizzi, President and CEO of the American Supply Association (ASA). The ASA has been working with its distributors and manufacturing partners to pull apart his industry’s current and future challenges and possible solutions. The ASA’s Building One Future Program identifies technology, talent recruitment and member training and resources to build stronger business models as challenge and solution areas. ASA’s DNEXT, Project Talent and Vitality programs address this innovative new work ahead for their industry.
D.NEXT
Without the resources to understand and leverage technology, distributors face threats from outside disruptors and technology-enabled competitors and risk becoming irrelevant. ASA needed a program to spur growth-oriented members to transform their companies strategically and successfully using technology. ASA’s first step to support members in this area has been to establish student-staffed innovation labs at the University of Illinois called D.NEXT (Distribution Next).
Project TALENT
What will it take to recruit into the industry, over the next decade, 60,000 to 100,000 employees with the needed competencies to ensure leadership succession and a pipeline of qualified candidates to fill jobs? Through Project TALENT, ASA is creating a brand with a positive narrative of the PHCP-PVF industry to increase awareness of quality career opportunities in the industry and provide recruitment tools for members to deploy to.
VITALITY
What can ASA do to raise members’ awareness about their positioning for the future and what tools and resources can ASA provide that will yield a viable, relevant future for members? ASA’s Vitality Program offers an assessment tool to help create an awareness and understanding of each member’s current business positioning on the spectrum of distributors and the means for evaluating their level of comfort with that position.
Mike Adelizzi
CEO
American Supply Association