2014 Annual Convention Speaker Spotlight Highlights
The
2014 NAFCD + NBMDA Annual Convention speaker line-up features thought leaders who will share their expertise on economic trends, innovative thinking, generational differences, trends in the building product supply chain and work-life engagement.
What If....? Inspiring Innovation and Performance In this presentation, Mike Rayburn teaches innovation, possibility thinking and personal mastery. Diverse audiences across North America are raving about the program, having learned how to realize their amazing, unrealized potential.
Top 5 take-aways for attendees:
- Tools to learn and expand innovation and possibility thinking.
- Tools for effective time management and moving from "managing change" to "creating change."
- How to set empowering goals which can effect exponential personal and organizational change and improvement.
- Identifying and maximizing the specific, personal traits critical to career peak performance.
- The power of a sense of purpose and how to harness it for real success.
Learn more about Mike Rayburn. NAFCD Quarterly Executive Trends Index Highlights
Distributors The Q1 NAFCD Quarterly Executive Trends Index showed that 2014 looks to be another year of recovery for distributors with the arrival of warmer spring weather. Weather has been the largest driver to the slower sales growth for distributors with 36 percent who experienced a 5 point or larger negative sales growth impact in January due to weather. Other key points include a strong 2014 sales growth outlook and continued profit progress. 2014 full year growth is forecast up 8 percent versus 2013 up 10 percent as NAFCD distributors expect less upside in 2014; up 9 percent versus 2013 up 13 percent.
Manufacturers According to the nearly 40 manufacturers that responded to the index survey, they expect another year of strong sales and profit growth in 2014. Despite the negative weather impact on first quarter sales growth, 2014 sales are currently forecast to increase 11 percent. Twenty-three percent of manufacturers have increased full year 2014 forecasts over the last 90 days. In addition to strong sales forecasts, 50 percent of NAFCD and NBMDA manufacturers anticipate an increase in headcount over the next 90 days and nearly 80 percent plan to add distributors during 2014, highlighting manufacturer expectations for a continued recovery in 2014.
Compare the results of your company with key trends identified by your fellow NAFCD members in the full 2014 Quarterly Executive Trends Index Report.
Floor Covering News Features NAFCD Distributor Column
Each month NAFCD provides a column to Floor Covering News that speaks to distributor related issues. This month David Powell discusses the value of decision making and the importance of keeping it simple.
David Powell
Erickson's Flooring & Supply Co.
Distributors' Perspective: The importance of keeping it simple Powell believes that there is a sweet spot for good decision making that requires you to get enough information to make a good decision, but not too much so you don't run the risk of analysis paralysis and delay making the decision, or don't make the decision at all (which is still a decision, just not a good one). If you wait until you are 100% sure, it is almost always too late to capitalize on that opportunity being offered to you or to avoid the problem you are dealing with. Putting off making a decision in order to procure more and more information tends to confuse the issue at hand and makes the decision process more difficult than it already was.
As distributors, we are frequently-sometimes daily-sent offers from new suppliers to carry their product lines. Without a good decision-making process, we could potentially pass up a great opportunity or make very bad decisions to take on product lines that aren't a good fit for our companies. With so many data points coming at us via the Internet, trade publications, news outlets, business partners, customers, etc., it's tough to keep it simple and stay true to an effective decision-making process.
The NAFCD trend reports are an excellent way to get key data points in a simple, straightforward manner to help you and your management teams make better decisions. Continue reading the full article here.
Interested in becoming a guest author for the NAFCD Distributor Column? Contact
Elizabeth Hyden for more information.
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SCHÖNOX GmbH is manufacturer of quality products for building and renovation industry. We supply professional workers (tile layer, floor layer, parquet layer, interior decorator, painter) through retailers and wholesalers with tile adhesives, floor adhesives, grouts, leveling compounds, screeds primers and waterproof membranes. 
