After reading HARDI President Bill Bergamini’s letter in this issue, l was struck by the truism of his observation that arguably, the distribution industry “seems” to lose out to more glamorous professions for attracting budding talent. Does anyone outside the industry know who we are or even think about us? In all my years of covering this industry, I’ve never heard or seen of a solid study that measures the general public or nondistribution world’s perception of our industry.
Which is PRECISELY the reason for this column. It’s the idea of perception or rather the lack of it, that is a major obstacle to attracting and retaining talented young professionals to the industry. It’s not rocket science. They don't know about us, they don’t think about us, which translates into not being on the radar for potential job seekers.