About the NAW Institute

Since January 31, 2007, the work of the Distribution Research and Education Foundation (DREF) is being carried out by a new organization: the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence.

How did this transformation come to be? NAW conducted market research during 2006 and what we discovered really caught our attention. Our surveys told us that — despite DREF’s highly regarded work since 1967 in publishing wholesale distribution industry reports like Facing the Forces of Change — the Foundation’s visibility within the wholesale distribution industry is limited.

Why are we making this change? We’re doing so to more clearly identify our research activities with NAW, which that same market research showed as having very high and positive brand awareness among wholesaler-distributors and other interested parties. And we’ve created the NAW Institute to more clearly focus on the intended outcome of our research — excellence in distribution.

The NAW Institute combines the research-focused work of DREF with the output of the NAW Publishing Program. The result will be a single, focused unit [still a 501c(3) not-for-profit educational foundation] that provides the highest level of industry-wide research and education to complement and supplement the educational efforts of NAW’s member associations. Learn more about the NAW Institute’s research priorities.

While our name and some of our activities are changing, the Mission remains the same:

“To sponsor and disseminate research into strategic management issues affecting the wholesale distribution industry. The NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence aims to help merchant wholesaler-distributors remain the most effective and efficient channel in distribution.”

What else is on the front burner for the NAW Institute? The NAW Institute’s best projects will be those that industry executives bring to us because those are the projects that will solve real-world business problems. Learn more about submitting a proposal to the NAW Institute.

If you have questions about the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Publishing Program, please contact Ruth Stadius, Director of Communications, at rstadius@naw.org.

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