COLUMBUS, Ohio, February 2, 2017– Late last week, HARDI announced the complete lineup for its Strategic Leadership & Finance Focus Conference April 9-11 in Memphis, TN. The Strategic Leadership & Finance Conference is a hybrid of the past Strategic Leadership Focus Conference content and finance topics and speakers that have been added. This event features three joint and eight additional concurrent sessions that cover topics from acquisitions and investment strategies to company culture. The keynote speaker for this event is Herb Meyer, who will talk to attendees about understanding today’s key political, cultural and economic issues and the effect the have on organizations.
 
HARDI members can look forward to observing the following 11 sessions:
 
Herb Meyer (Keynote)
What in the World is Going On? A Global Intelligence Briefing
Key trends in politics, economics and even culture have an impact on every business, and to manage effectively executives must know these trends and how they will affect your organization. Meyer will explain what lies behind the national security, economic and cultural issues that dominate the news.
 
Barbara Trautlein
You Know Your IQ, but What’s Your CQ? Develop Your Change Intelligence & Lead Internal Change
Trautlen’s highly interactive presentation will teach you to get beyond the buzzwords and leverage a proven formula for change. Her session will help attendees develop their change intelligence and lead internal change.
 
Ken Serwinski
The Role of Business Valuation in the M&A Process
Serwinski will share insights will the CFO crowd regarding the mergers and acquisitions process and ensuring you arrive at a correct valuation. 
 
Ken Serwinski
Leadership On the Warehouse Floor
in this session, Serwinski will review with the strategies and leadership track ownership succession options, including ESOPs.
 
Jim Crocker
Best Practices for Board of Director Governance in Private Business
Crocker’s presentation will cover the role and benefits of a BOD in private business, board composition – putting together an effective private business BOD, board effectiveness – operating an effective private business BOD, lessons from others – common BOD challenges and how to overcome them.
 
 John Uselman
Delivering Secure & Cost Effective Payment Acceptance to Your Clients
This session will help attendees find answers for some of your common credit card worries. Questions like, “What is my real exposure and financial risk in taking credit cards?  What costs are there if there is even a small breach? What technology could I use to make the client experience better, safer? Am I getting the best overall costs? How will I know?”
 
Paul Giudice & Greg Borr
Beyond Benchmarking: Using Data to Drive Performance
Schlegel leads a lively discussion revealing what is Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM), why you should care and how to mitigate it. This session will include the ugly bottom-line financial impacts of supply chain disruptions and will share basic tools, techniques and methodologies that are driving this new discipline along.
 
Jim Thompson
Lessons from a Distribution CEO
Thompson’s session will address leading a changing work force, maximizing internal teams and how each business has needs that differ depending on their journey on the life cycle curve. He will share real examples and experiences for better understanding and leading in the future.
 
Joe Ellers
Pay for What You Want: Sales Compensation Strategies That Drive Business Goals
The goal of Ellers’ session is to help you boil down key objectives in your sales compensation plan to the things that really matter, and then identify the 3-5 tweaks that you can make to your plan to encourage the team to do the right things.
 
John Mansfield, Troy Meachum & Kevin Parsley
Utilizing Best Practices in Customer Stratification at ACR Supply
Troy and Kevin will share insights on how they started their customer stratification journey, lessons learned along the way and the financial results they are experiencing. John Mansfield of StratMax, the industry leader in the practical application of customer stratification, will share best customer stratification best practices.
 
Nick Araco
The Changing Role of the CFO
Nick will explore how the role of the CFO has evolved from “Mr.No” who hid in the corner office to “The Chief Trusted Advisor” who is asked to impact performance across the enterprise and directly inspire customer loyalty.
 
HARDI members can register or get more information on this event at hardinet.org/strategic-leadership.