Global Energy Expert & Top Management Guru To Headline AHFA Conference

Furniture World Magazine

The Suppliers Division of the American Home Furnishings Alliance has announced a powerhouse conference condensed into a compact 8-hour time frame August 9-10 at the Grandover Resort & Conference Center in Greensboro, N.C. The conference is open to all industry executives. There is no upcharge for companies that are not members of AHFA. “Managing the complexity of today’s global supply chain and global marketing environment has overwhelmed many companies in our industry. This event was designed to stimulate strategic thinking and provide company executives with ‘operating intelligence’ to help them improve profitability,” explains Buster Mann of Hickory Springs Manufacturing. Mann serves as president of the 225-member Suppliers Division, which is comprised of a diverse group of companies supplying products and services to the residential furniture industry. The conference was scheduled at the Grandover Resort & Conference Center in Greensboro to help make the event easily accessible for many companies. An optional golf outing is slated for noon on August 9. The program begins at 6 p.m. with a reception and dinner. Michael Knight, CEO of Third Wave Research, is the dinner speaker. Knight has 20 years experience in demographic analysis and marketing intelligence. His clients have included Procter & Gamble and Pfizer, as well as Ashley, Thomasville, Boyles and R.C. Willey. The August 10 program runs from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and includes breakfast and lunch. Dr. Michael Economides, professor at the University of Houston, kicks off the business program at 8 a.m. with an informative session on “Energy Geopolitics.” In addition to teaching at the University of Houston, Economides is the managing partner of a petroleum engineering and petroleum strategy consulting firm. His interests include petroleum production and management, with a particular emphasis on natural gas, natural gas transportation, economics and geopolitics. Previously he served as chief scientist of the Global Petroleum Research Institute. Economides is followed at 10 a.m. by George Stalk Jr., a senior vice president and director at the Boston Consulting Group, where his practice is focused on creating “unassailable competitive advantage.” Stalk lived in Japan for over a decade while working to reveal the sources of Japanese competitive advantage in cost, quality and, most importantly, time. His research led to his company’s breakthrough thinking on the use of time as a competitive weapon. To demonstrate the effectiveness of this time-based competitive strategy, Stalk ran a client’s factory in North America where costs were reduced and quality improved significantly while throughput times were cut by a factor of 10. Today he works with clients to integrate emerging Chinese threats and opportunities into their competitive strategies. His presentation for industry executives in August is titled, “The China Riptide: Threat or Opportunity?” The half-day program concludes with lunch. Registration is $250 for all companies. The optional golf outing costs $90 per player (includes a box lunch). Meeting registration is available online at www.ahfa.us. After clicking on the AHFA logo, go to EVENTS and scroll down to the Suppliers Division Conference. A group rate of $159 a night is available until July 8 at the Grandover. Call the hotel directly at 336/294-1800 for room reservations. For more information, email rcraven@ahfa.us.