ECIA Executive Conference Preview
AmAnufActurer's point of view
ECIAMarketing CouncilMember and president of Bud Industries, Blair K. Haas, shares his thoughts on the value proposition of themerger between ECA and NEDA By Blair K. Haas, president, Bud Industries, Inc. and ECIA Marketing CouncilMember
Blair K. Haas, president, Bud Industries
At first blush, the concept of combining trade associations from different facets of
an industrymight not seemlogical. In industries that range from automotive to construction to beer, the normhas been to segregate the producers fromthe distributors, with the idea that their interests aremore often in conflict than harmony. It is, therefore, an interesting development that the Electronic Components Association (ECA) and the National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) have decided tomerge and create the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA).
As with any transaction, it is the value proposition that has to be
analyzed. For each association, thematuration of the industry, with a shift to largermerged firms, resulted in fewermembers andmore natural cooperation.
In the earlier days of the industry, there weremajor battles over
sharing of sales data (POS), inventory stocking levels, and other operational details. Today, the focus is on how to best jointly service the customer, how to tap emergingmarkets, and how to grow business. Itmakes sense for the trade associations tomove beyond their traditional structure to reflect the reality of today'smarkets. As each association brings to themerger their historical strengths, they can now best cooperate on ways to support the growth of the entire industry.
In the past, each organization developed statistics, standards,
and priorities based on their specific drivers. Today, as amerged organization, ECIA will be able to draw fromits broadmembership to create statistics that aremuchmoremeaningful, leading to both market segment statistics as well as industry data. ECA, which
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developed andmaintained ANSI standards, will now be able to draw input fromthe distribution base and broad base of users in addition to their existing network.
Furthermore, as industry issues such as counterfeit products
arise, we will be able to create industry-wide panels to address the challenges that the entire electronics industry faces and present solutions with one industry voice, creating strength and power beyond what each segment could do individually.
One of themajor values of a trade association is to facilitate
communications and contacts among all aspects of their membership.While each organization has invited the other's members to their events, it was never a truemeeting of equals.
Today, this will evolve into opportunities to discuss themajor
issues of the day fromall directions, providing a forumthat has beenmissing fromour industry in the past. The topmanagement frombothmanufacturers and distributors will have a regular opportunity to learn fromeach other in a neutral environment.
It is the hope of ECIA that sales reps will continue to join this new
group to share their unique point of view. The opportunities are huge, with such concepts as localmeetings, training ofmid- management, recruitment of talent, and industry business management, all being developed.
The time for competing trade associations has passed. As
business becomesmore complex and all of us are pushed to communicatemore effectively and rapidly, a single source for industry activities, standards, programs, and promotion has become a necessity. In the comingmonths, as themerger evolves, the ECIA will become amajor force in the activities and actions of our industry. For those of us who participate, the rewards should be significant.
www.electronics-sourcing.com
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