Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
Issue link: https://idoi.epubxp.com/i/255259
8 International Door & Operator Industry™ Industry Leaders Working Together PRESIDENT'S COMMENTARY By Bill Gibson, President, International Door Association Para la versión en Español, visitare www.doors.org One of the greatest perks of serving as your president is that it gives me the opportunity to work with industry leaders from across the spectrum. Serving with the IDA board of directors is gratifying and rewarding, as we continually seek ways to make the world of the professional door dealer a friendlier and more proftable place. We also spend time with our friends and allies, exploring opportunities to beneft the industry as a whole, to advance our common objectives. Most recently, I participated in a series of meeting with our counterparts at DASMA and IDEA. IDA and DASMA have maintained liaison meetings on a semi-annual basis for many years. However, it's just been in the last couple of years that both of our organizations have also gathered with IDEA leaders to provide input and support to the group that our two organizations helped create in 1996. It was energizing to hear industry leaders such as Ray Neiswander III, of Raynor, and Mark Schram, of Napolean- Lynx, put forth ideas and words of encouragement to the IDEA team. As a door dealer and former IDEA director, I've been a part of many discussions about IDEA over the years. But those conversations were generally coming from the dealer perspective. Hearing leaders from the manufacturing community share their enthusiasm for the work of IDEA was inspiring to me. It also took me back to the early days of IDEA's existence, when the group had a mission to "enhance door dealer professionalism" and a dozen volunteers took on that daunting task knowing that it would be years before the efforts would bear fruit. It was gratifying to hear members of all three organizations' leadership teams' talk about the future of IDEA, and to realize the substantial benefts of greater recognition of the value brought to the industry by professional door dealers and technicians. It was an industry-wide effort that made it all possible, and that IDA- DASMA-IDEA partnership will continue to enhance our industry for many years to come. And, as I was reminded during the meeting with DASMA and IDEA, it's an effort that has gained strength and is being supported by manufacturers at increasing levels. We are truly at a tipping point, where professionalism is being recognized and valued in our markets and throughout our industry. Most recently, Overhead Door Corporation took the initiative of encouraging its dealers who purchase fre door products to have their technicians earn IDEA Rolling Steel Fire Door Technician Certifcation. As an Overhead Door Company owner, the success of this effort was clearly evident. I had previously witnessed the enthusiasm and team-building value of IDEA credentials among my own installers and service technicians, but now I am seeing it happen on a national basis. As door dealers, it's easy to sometimes have a bunker mentality. There is always a threat to our livelihoods, sometimes real and sometimes perceived, but they are always on our radar screen. When you run a business dependent on so many things going right, and subject to any one thing going wrong, it's easy to worry about things such as new competition, emerging distribution methods and legal or regulatory burdens. But we must remind ourselves that taking care of the fundamentals is the best protection we have against all threats, and professionalism is the key to our longevity in the business. All of us have weathered what was perhaps the biggest threat to our survival…the housing crisis and the massive recession could have eliminated many door dealers from all parts of the country. But it didn't, and one of the reasons why is that we have become more recognized by the general public as an important professional trade. Our reputations for quality and customer satisfaction were no longer things we advertised, but virtues that consumers recognized, and that enabled us to survive. It's all about professionalism, and being visible to the general public as an expert in the feld, and a known quantity. In the best of times, we are looking out at the horizon, worried about what new threat may lie ahead. But, in the most diffcult of times, the fundamentals of running a professional business and taking care of our customers is our greatest asset. We do that as individual businesses, and we do it with the support of industry organizations. I'm very proud and honored to be your president. I'm humbled to see the results of the collective efforts of our industry's volunteer leaders. I'm especially motivated when I can see tangible results from our efforts that have helped us all to succeed when the odds were against us. I'm excited about the future, knowing our industry is working together for all of us. 1/24/14 10:48 AM