Chairman’s Message
Now What?
T
he focus of my now two-year, pandemically stretched term as AICC chair has been on identifying the ways AICC can help your company grow. Members have been flocking to AICC’s Packaging School and attending webinars, the All-Access series seminars, Converter Think Tanks, and virtual plant tours. AICC has stepped up its game to make sure that members have the tools that they need to keep growing. Independents have always been successful at long-term, sustainable growth and relevancy. We’re multigeneration companies. We have faced recessions, natural disasters, and now a pandemic. We have been adaptable and agile through the cultures that we have created in our operations. Randy Wolken, writing for Forbes, suggests that “sustainable growth is not dependent solely on the market but on leadership.” AICC members are living proof of this statement. In the past year, everything that we thought we knew has been, in many ways, tossed out the window. You have been operating with new realities. You have adapted. In the current market, unprecedented as it has been of late, you have thrived. So, it begs the question: Now what? How do I decide on a plan for my business with so much uncertainty and disruption? McKinsey & Co. has been doing lots of research on B2B transactions and the advancement that digital selling has made during the restrictions on travel over the past year. AICC partner Mark Allen Roberts of OTB Solutions suggests there is much to hear when you listen to the voice of the customer. Perhaps the survey of B2B companies below gives you an inkling as to why.
AICC has been providing webinars on how to ensure that your salespeople have the right skill sets to sell in the no-travel environment. Now you need to do your part and speak with your customers and prospects to determine what is going to work for them in the post-pandemic world. Likewise, AICC supplier members need to determine what is going to work in their sales and transactional relationship with you going forward. AICC will continue to fulfill its goal of helping your company build on your Jay Carman leadership and continue to successfully President, StandFast Packaging Group grow. We can’t do it without you! Chairman, AICC
BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org
3
