Greetings HARDI members! I hope all of you are enjoying the beginnings of a beautiful summer, full of sunshine, warm temperatures, and most importantly, outstanding HARDI events! It is truly hard to believe we are already halfway through the year. As I look back on the wonderful events that have already taken place, I’m incredibly grateful for the numerous conversations, feedback, and memories so many of you have given me. Thank you for giving me some of your time and allowing me to better understand the people that make this association great.  I look forward to continuing this momentum as we move forward with the rest of the year engaging in the high-quality events HARDI has planned.

            Right now, I am incredibly excited for the third Focus Conference, Marketing & Sales Optimization, which is just around the corner. Taking place June 22-24, at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan, Wisconsin, I expect this to be one of the most well-attended Focus Conferences of the year. With incredibly talented speakers like Sam Richter, Jim Pancero, and Alex Goldfayn, this content has the potential to dramatically maximize profit within your company. Sales and marketing are an integral aspect of any business, and you will not want to miss the groundbreaking skills, strategies, and techniques that will be presented to members that attend this conference. Further down the line I look forward to the Purchasing Optimization Conference Sept. 14-16 in Newport, Rhode Island. If the first two Focus Conferences have taught me anything, it’s that the opportunity to analyze and discuss the data and insight given from speakers with fellow members is truly priceless. Personally, I have learned so much from all of you about how you make the content applicable to your specific companies. HARDI prides itself on keeping our members up-to-date and ahead of the curve, so I am incredibly excited to keep connecting with all of you as the year progresses.

Speaking of progress, one of my proudest HARDI moments as president thus far has been standing with fellow members on Capitol Hill, united in our determination to represent the needs and concerns of the HVAC industry to key players in legislation. This year we had our biggest turnout in Congressional Fly-In HARDI history, and believe me, it did not disappoint.  In addition to getting to hear all of you voice your concerns on the important issues affecting the industry, I was impressed with the powerful discussions we had with members of congress. Everyone in attendance was informed, well-spoken, and able to hold their own when discussing crucial subjects such as the repeal of LIFO, the estate tax, the Affordable Care Act, and much more. I want to thank every member that attended the 2014 Congressional Fly-In for contributing to a cause that facilitates positive change in the industry we love.

            HARDI continues to impress me with all of its wonderful education initiatives. At every event, I hear amazing feedback from all of you about the improvements you’ve seen in employee performance thanks to our high-quality education system HEAT.U. Did you know that our most recent group of Branch Manager Certification program students saw a 5 percent improvement in sales growth, with multiple branches that participated in the program outperforming their companies in sales growth by a double-digit percentage? I urge all of you looking to improve company performance to check out HEAT.U and see how HARDI can help you with all of your education needs. Also, be sure to learn more about the education events HARDI has planned at  www.hardinet.org/educational-events. The Texas A&M University Optimizing Channel Compensations workshop, taking place July 31 - Aug. 1 in Chicago, will help members better understand changing service models and best practices in manufacturer-distributor collaborations. Of course, I must mention the highly anticipated Emerging Leaders Summer Conference taking place in San Francisco July 20-22. Highlighting the theme of business strategy and leadership development, an incredible amount of thought has gone into putting forth the best content for your companies’ rising stars.

            Finally, I hope all of you have taken a second to learn about HARDI’s newest benchmarking service, the Distributor Performance Dashboards. This service was formed as a result of member demand, and I am eager for all of you to take advantage of it. Members can now create customizable user performance analysis dashboards, have quarterly reporting of recent trends, and observe cross industry benchmarking data in an effort to maintain their competitive  advantage. If you’d like more information, learn more at www.hardinet.org/Profit-Report or check out HARDI’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/HARDInews, where you can watch a tutorial that will show you step by step how to use the Distributor Performance Dashboards. I am confident I will receive much feedback from members on how this service has increased the efficiency of HARDI benchmarking and benefitted your company as a result.

            If the first half of my presidency has been any indication, the rest of the HARDI events and initiatives in store for 2014 are sure to be some of the best we have seen in HARDI history. I want to thank all of you for making it such a remarkable year, and look forward to seeing what we accomplish in the future.

Kind regards,

Royce Henderson