COLUMBUS, Ohio — HARDI has announced the lineup for its Strategic Leadership & Finance Focus Conference April 9-11 in Memphis. The conference is a hybrid of the past Strategic Leadership Focus Conference. This event features three joint and eight additional concurrent sessions that cover topics ranging from acquisitions and investment strategies to company culture. The keynote speaker for this event is Herb Meyer, who will discuss understanding today’s key political, cultural and economic issues and the effect they have on organizations.

HARDI members can look forward to attending 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. To manage effectively, executives must know these trends and how they will affect their 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

Trautlein’s highly interactive presentation will teach you how 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 with the CFO crowd regarding the mergers and acquisitions process and ensuring that you arrive at a correct valuation.

Ownership Transition Alternatives & Exploring ESOPs

In this session, Serwinski will review 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 to 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

Building a data-driven culture starts with having access to the right metrics and when done well, can deliver significant bottom-line performance gains.

Jim Thompson

Lessons from a Distribution CEO

Thompson’s session will address leading a changing workforce, 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 three to five 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, an industry leader in the practical application of customer stratification, will share customer stratification best practices.

Nick Araco

The Changing Role of the CFO

Araco 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.