HDAW 2023 general session talks through 'unprecedented times'

HDAW 2023 general session talks through ‘unprecedented times’

The HDAW Expo floor is sold out, there 1,800 one-on-one meetings scheduled, and 756 distributors among the 2,500 attendees. It's a big year.

Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week (HDAW) is here. HDAW co-chairs Bill Betts, president and COO at Betts Co., and Brian Riegner, vice president of America sales, Consolidated Metco, noted that the Expo floor is sold out, there 1,800 one-on-one meetings scheduled, and 756 distributors among the 2,500 attendees. During HDAW, heavy-duty aftermarket professionals will experience expert-led education, networking opportunities, personalized business meetings and a Product Expo that provides an exclusive view of the latest products moving the industry forward.

To kick things off, here are the tap takeaways from the first morning’s general session.

‘The objective is professional, the journey is personal’

Brian Kight, author of DailyDiscipline.com and advisor to businesses and sports teams, took to the stage to talk about the leadership needed for business to shift, adapt and grow in today’s competitive, technology led heavy-duty aftermarket industry.

“Most of our professional objectives, the ones that we’re struggling with and aiming for have far more to do with what we are willing or not willing to do personally than our intelligence to identify a strategy for achieving it,” Kight said. “What’s easier to change a process or a person?”

The crowd: “Process.”

“Right, process! They don’t have moods or opinions. The technology and process would work, if we could get our people to do it.”

He stressed that in today’s adaptation environment, there is personal leadership growth that needs to happen in order to be successful.

Heavy-duty Aftermarket Hall of Fame award

Stu MacKay, president emeritus, MacKay and Co., was inducted into the heavy-duty aftermarket Hall of Fame.

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