Month 15 – October 2013

I feel like I say this every month, but October was truly packed with so much action. I spent very little time at my home profit center (Philadelphia) because I had so much going on elsewhere. My first offsite event was a “lunch and learn” with Kohler Company. This was a class designed for showroom salespeople; the topic being color schemes in kitchens and bathrooms. Frankly, it wasn’t particularly in line with the things I was working on at the time (i.e. commerical plumbing quotes), but it was good to gain exposure to other aspects of Hajoca’s business. I also knew I was scheduled to work at a showroom location sometime in the next couple months. Every piece of knowledge is valuable to become a successful manager.

The following week I traveled to Blytheville, AR (just outside of Memphis, TN) to visit NIBCO Inc. The purpose of this visit was very similar to the trip I had to Charlotte Pipe and Foundry back in February. In addition to touring their foundry and other facilities, NIBCO had some excellent training courses for us. I felt that I had a much stronger understanding of their products and built great rapport with some of their key product experts. Not only did we spend time learning specific NIBCO products, but we also spent a significant amount of time discussing general industry topics such as the lead-free compliance requirements which are going into effect in 2014. Of course, I can’t forget to mention the delicious meals (BBQ!) and fun we had during our free time. Again, I am so thankful to have had this training opportunity among many others that Hajoca has provided.

From 10/21 to 10/23 we had our annual Management Trainees’ Seminar. You can read about last year’s seminar in my September 2012 post. I could not believe that I was already attending my second MDP seminar. There were many similarities, but there were also plenty of differences. Our president, Rick Fantham, returned to give us another presentation on leadership. As always, his time and inspiration were much appreciated. Doug Hymas from our accounting department made another appearance to discuss our financial statements. The most obvious difference I noticed was the number of trainees in attendance. We went from having 11 of us last year to over 30 for this year! Looks like Hajoca’s new MDP recruiters have been working hard to find us some new qualified managers and I think they did a pretty fine job.

I gave my business presentation on Tracking and Eliminating Lost Sales Caused by Stock Outages. I received very positive feedback on it, and I am discussing with my regional manager the possibility of applying this method to the day to day operations of our profit centers. By and large, my improved understanding of our company culture and increased knowledge of our industry allowed to me to benefit far more from listening to my peers’ business project presentations than I did last year. I should have one more seminar before I graduate from the program, so I am already thinking about my next business project.

The following weekend, I took a much needed vacation to visit some of my friends in Houston, TX. We attended a Halloween themed music festival and celebrated my birthday, which was on the 28th. I had a really great time. Despite my rigorous schedule, Hajoca still allows me to take vacation days and maintain a social life. The only caveat is that I have to be very proactive about this just like I am with everything else. I feel like this is true with anything in life, so it’s a good lesson.

After I got back home on the 29th, I went straight to the Weinstein Supply West Chester location to work in the showroom as part of my showroom training. Philadelphia does not have a showroom, so spending a week at a showroom location was beneficial to my development as a manager. During that week I learned about the sales process to homeowners and designers as well as the products that we carry in our showrooms.

I wish I could say that this was the end of my busy schedule and I had some relaxation planned… nope. I am scheduled to fly out tomorrow (11/1) to San Antonio, TX to help with our computer system conversion for two weeks!