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Nearly two decades ago in St. Petersburg, Florida, ASA gathered a group of volunteer leaders to chart the association’s short- and long-term courses, which produced ASA’s first long-range strategic plan.

Last month, St. Petersburg again was the site for what is now called ASA’s annual LEAD Strategic Leadership Summit. This year’s LEAD event brought together 85 volunteers representing senior leadership, the four ASA strategic councils (Workforce Development, Advocacy, Operational Excellence and Embracing the Future), as well as the Women in Industry, Emerging Leaders, Industrial Piping Division, Plumbing Division and Vendor Member Division special-interest groups — once again to take a look at issues that will affect ASA member companies and their employees now and in the future.

This particular LEAD meeting, however, came with a twist. For the five months leading into the St. Petersburg gathering, a special Issue Strategic Action Team (ISAT) of next-generation leaders (including my daughter, Meagan Owen) had been meeting, looking a decade into the future to identify those forces of change that will impact their firms’ ability to successfully compete and to set the foundation for the association’s discussions that took place in St. Petersburg.

Robertson Heating Supply’s Ryan Robertson makes a point during a panel discussion at ASA’s Strategic Leadership Summit. Robertson was part of an issue strategic action team of next-gen leaders who were tasked over the past five months with looking a decade into the future to identify forces of change that will impact their firms’ ability to successfully compete. The team presented their findings to the LEAD group, which provided the basis for the majority of the strategic planning session portion of the meeting. Photo by Charlie Fernandes/ASA

This next-gen ISAT team focused its work on the following challenge; How can the PHCP/PVF distribution industry remain relevant, sustainable and profitable over the next decade amid accelerating technology, consolidation and workforce disruption?

During two live work sessions in Chicago and at NETWORK2025 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida this past November, plus numerous Zoom meetings over those last five months, a clear strategic thesis emerged: Winners will be those who harness inevitable change while keeping distribution deeply human — emphasis on the deeply human part.

Based on that next-gen ISAT presentation in an interview format on stage in St. Petersburg, LEAD attendees focused much of their work later in the day on a foundational belief for the industry that a shift from defining people as “our greatest asset” to one of “our employees are our greatest strength” is necessary.

As LEAD facilitator Dirk Beveridge (who also led the next-gen ISAT meeting discussions) pointed out, viewing team members as assets is the more traditional mindset of seeing people as expendable and transactional short-term contributors, something no longer viable in a labor-constrained, trust-dependent industry.

Instead, viewing employees as a company’s strength elevates key components such as helping people pursue their potential, the ability to thrive where conditions are created for employees to flourish, respect, empathy, nurturing, growth, a sense of togetherness and coming together for a common cause, and a human-centric purpose and impact.

The conversations in Florida last month helped the group articulate the philosophical shift required: people cannot be treated as or even called assets, but instead are strengths that can be developed — providing a more wholistic approach of humanity.

This shift to a more STRENGTH focus can be transformational for members in developing their teams, keeping their teams together, and especially in attracting the new teams required for growth and success in today’s turbulent business climate.

What’s next? This is the exciting part. Based on the work done from those next-gen sessions last year and last month in Florida, ASA’s four strategic councils (Workforce Development, Advocacy, Operational Excellence and Embracing the Future) are working to determine how their focus can help advance this new, important strategic goal and create new tools to help ASA members.

Over the past 15 years, ASA has invested more than $6.5 million to expand its leadership and provide value within those four core value areas. Keeping that long-range strategic mind at the forefront allows us to remain focused, yet flexible, to meet the changing needs of our members as they deal with internal and external disruptions now and into the future.

Which is why I cannot wait to see what tools our national trade association develops to help emphasize/drive home the importance of that deeply human connection within our companies.

Work like this is why ASA continues to win the day in advancing the success of the PHCP-PVF supply chain industry.

We are strong together.