Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
June 5, 2019
Today, June 6, is D-Day. I know there are many who read this newsletter who are well-removed from those who served in World War II. For us baby boomers, the children of the men and women who served either in the military or supporting the war effort at home, we learned early in life about the tragedy of war. Today, the public is horrified when any lives are lost in battles in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere (I don’t mean to trivialize any loss of life as each loss is truly tragic). However, to put the losses we see today into context, according to Wikipedia, “Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces.” On June 6, 1944, there were 10,000 casualties amongst the allied troops with 4,414 confirmed dead on that single day. Truly staggering and sobering numbers that should not be forgotten.
Earlier this week we announced that the industry executive who will mentor for a day our 2019 SMU NexGen Leadership Award winner will be Mark Millett, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Steel Dynamics (SDI). This is an exceptional opportunity for one of the young rising stars in your company. There are a number of other benefits, as well. To be a “rising star” does not mean the individual must be at a managerial or executive level. We are looking for someone who is particularly creative within their role, or perhaps working outside of the box and assisting others in the company on how to recognize challenges and solve them in new and interesting ways. This person could be in a customer service role, information technologies, logistics, working on a factory floor, in sales, purchasing, accounting, credit management – you name it. We do not want to overlook anyone who is 35 years or younger and has talent.
Steel Market Update, and our Steel Manufacturing Association (SMA) sponsors, are firm believers in attracting, hiring, training and maintaining young people in steel and steel-related companies. This includes manufacturing, fabrication, distribution, toll processing, trading companies, logistics and other support organizations that work with steel, as well as the steel mills themselves. Both SMU and the SMA highly encourage company executives to look within your organizations, empower your managers to ferret out and recognize young talent. All you need to do is to recognize them by nominating them. Details about the nomination process can be found here. If you need more information or have any questions at all, please reach out to me directly. I can be reached at 800-432-3475 or by email at John@SteelMarketUpdate.com
As of this past Sunday (June 2), there were 261 companies registered to attend the 2019 SMU Steel Summit Conference. I am not sure of the exact registration levels, only that we are over 600 and continue to work our way closer to 1,000. For those who might be interested, I believe we have 1 or 2 exhibition tables left, and 1 or 2 sponsorship spots (we are looking at bringing in charging stations and are seeking a sponsor for those; your company logo would be on the stations). If interested in exhibition space or sponsoring this year’s conference, please contact Jill Waldman at Jill@SteelMarketUpdate.com FYI, Jill is also selling spots for the CRU Aluminum Conference, which is being held at the Marriott Hotel next to the GICC right after ours concludes.
For information about registering for this year’s conference, click here or go to: www.SteelMarketUpdate.com/Events/Steel-Summit
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO

John Packard
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