Editor's Forum: What Comes After

As much as this industry is a community, it is also a collection of individual people and businesses. We collaborate nationally and compete locally. That’s what makes the Industry Awards so fun, because it totally bucks this trend. We take what we’ve accomplished locally and put it up against others to compete nationally. And if you see this year’s Top 50 lists, we’re now competing internationally.

The Mobile Electronics Industry Awards is a big stage with a big spotlight. It has launched careers and created heroes from relative unknowns. As editor for the magazine, my vision for the recipients of this award is very simple: If someone were to ask me to show them the best of what our industry has to offer, I should be able to point to the winning brands, businesses and individuals and say, “There you are.”

This means that the awards are about more than skill, experience and expertise. These alone don’t build businesses. It’s the ability to talk about them, promote them and build trust from those who listen, and then fulfill that trust. That’s why the awards process starts with self-nominations rather than people nominating other people: it mirrors the requirement to tell who you are and why you should be deserving of the award.

So what am I building up to here? This is an industry in which we survive and grow by identifying and emulating good examples. That is the whole objective of this magazine and one of the three core components of KnowledgeFest. There is no more direct identification of those good examples than the winners presented throughout the Industry Awards process. We all want to get better at what we do, so if you are a Top 50, Top 20, Top 12, Top 5, Top 3, Runner-Up or ultimate winner, you are now an example of “better.”

Biggie famously said, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” What he is really saying is that everything is relative. In our application, it means that winning and being recognized carries additional responsibility. You’re no longer the business or individual existing within four walls. Your four walls now include a saloon door that swings both ways and can’t be permanently shut.

As the entity that provides the platform for your recognition, we encourage you to live up to this responsibility. I am all for using your award to build more trust from your customer base. But I also want you to invest in making your industry better as well. Here’s how you do it.

First, overcome your fear to share … it’s obsolete. Our own experience has shown us that strong customer relationships play a larger part in gaining and maintaining customers than skill and expertise. So we’re past the point of hoarding secrets for fear of losing customers. (If you lose them that easily, it means they didn’t trust you in the first place.) To that point, there’s no reason you can’t present examples of your expertise for others in your industry to learn.

Let people know what you’re really good at. We are all jacksof-all-trades, but there are some things in which we excel. Do you manage and anticipate your inventory needs expertly? Are you a wiring guru? Do you have non-existent turnover? These individual abilities can make a significant difference in helping another business.

Make yourself available to answer questions. Get on Facebook and join groups in which industry professionals are looking for solutions. Offer your thoughts and experiences, and let participants know they can contact you offline if they need more information.

Recognize others for their good works. If you come across an article, post or picture that shows another store’s or individual’s accomplishment, take the time to comment, even if it’s a short “Great job!”

Relay your good and bad experiences. If you find the time (haha!), write down an experience you’ve had with your business or profession that you feel could help others. Post it in the appropriate groups and be prepared to answer questions or provide more detail in the resulting dialogue.

Try to get better at something else. Leading by example doesn’t just move in one direction. Progressive companies and proactive individuals also lead by showing they can still learn. Use these same groups and gatherings to improve your own expertise.

I want to congratulate the winners we have so far and wish you luck as we work toward the final awards in Dallas. But don’t wait to be that good example the industry looks up to. Your time in the spotlight starts now.