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Parting Thoughts from Your Outgoing ISSA President

Categories: ISSA Insights

ISSA Show North America 2022 is now a wrap. I hope you got as much out of it as I did. If you missed it or didn’t attend all that you wanted, this issue will provide a recap of the event. For me, as always, it was an excellent opportunity to connect with many of you and see the latest innovations in the industry.

This year did not disappoint. As an industry, we continue to challenge convention while considering new possibilities and novel ways to address old problems. As the ISSA Show has come to a conclusion, so does my term here as president of ISSA.

It has been a pleasure to serve as president this past year. I’ve been involved with ISSA for many years, but serving as president has provided me with an increased level of appreciation for the talent and passion of everyone that works here. The entire team never loses focus of their goal to serve and support members in the best way possible.

The approaches to achieving this goal are constantly evolving. Like our industry, this team is continually innovating and finding new ways to bring value and move us forward. One example of this is the latest campaign we launched this year, Rethink Clean.

This campaign uses creativity and a bit of fun to present our industry in a modern and engaging way. These tactics serve a very clear mission in getting people to rethink clean by raising consumers’ expectations for what clean can be, enlightening businesses about the bottom-line benefits of clean, and providing the tools businesses need to realize those benefits. This mission will help support the campaign’s objective to lead facility managers to see cleaning services and products as an investment that will benefit them.

This mindset will help strengthen our industry and serve as one more component to continue to propel us forward. The results of this campaign, so far, have been impressive. The videos, featuring Howie Mandel, have proven to be both highly entertaining and shareable.

As I look back to earlier this year, I entered this role with a high degree of optimism and pride for our industry and the vital part we played in the pandemic, including the significant contributions we made. As I transition out of this role and reflect on the goals we set, I am proud of our progress and accomplishments.

I am encouraged that our strong ISSA support team will still be here while we welcome a new leader to serve as president, Matt Vonachen. Along with Matt, I also welcome all the new board members. This group, like past groups, will bring fresh ideas and enthusiasm for the work ISSA does while staying steadfast to ISSA’s values and remaining committed to its members. I won’t be far and will continue to be a member of ISSA. I thank all ISSA members for giving me this opportunity to serve, and I look forward to seeing you at future ISSA events.

About the Author.

Harry Dochelli is the former president of ISSA, and is the CEO and president of Essendant, a distribution and fulfillment company with a leading role in the cleaning industry.