ASD Regional Meeting: Purpose Driven Workplace

Last week John Temples of Steel Market Update attended the Association of Steel Distributors regional meeting in Detroit, Michigan. This was his first ASD meeting, and found the meeting to be a beneficial resource for networking and learning more about steel related business in the Midwest. The featured speaker was Mike Fezzey, president of Huntington National Bank’s eastern Michigan region. Interestingly enough, Mike’s experience is neither in banking or steel. He is a former broadcast executive who served as president of WJR 760 AM in Detroit. His message, however, resonates not only with Huntington, but with many businesses in the steel industry.

One such business is Grand Steel. Prior to attending the ASD meeting, Temples had the pleasure of meeting Mike Barnett, Vice President of Grand Steel, and a board member of the ASD. Grand Steel is a small family operated secondary steel distributor located in Wixom MI. During his conversation with Mike, it became apparent that Grand Steel’s success is in large part due to their corporate values and emphasis on their human capital, a key element of Fezzey’s “Purpose Driven Workplace” philosophy; the subject of his message to the ASD audience.