Leadership–The key to successful organizations

A leader is a person who directs or serves as the guiding head of an organization. Leadership, then, is defined as the ability to lead. While every organization needs strong leaders and managers who work well together, pure leadership is distinguished from actual management.

The leader innovates while the manager administers. The leader develops as the manager maintains. A leader focuses his or her attention on people, long-range results, and challenges anyone who dares to suggest that something is impossible. The hope of a leader inspires trust, and most important, gets results. As you will soon see, Archie Biggs, Jr. and Jack Waller, as leaders of the NASC, embody this philosophy perfectly.

Prior to co-creating the National Association of Solution Providers and Channel Partners with Mr. Waller, Archie Biggs, Jr. spent more than 35 years in various aspects of business, including the IT industry. Most recently, Biggs was the owner and CEO of a successful computer retailer and on-site service provider. His diverse experience includes serving as franchisor of a multi state computer retail business, franchisor of one of the first video rental outlets in the Metro-Detroit area, and successfully running a number of other businesses.

Even in the earlier years before the IT industry burgeoned into the mega-industry it now is, Biggs was at the forefront. In 1988, just four years after starting his first computer company, Biggs was recognized as one of the largest Commodore dealers in the world. Under his savvy leadership in the late 1980's, his customer base topped 125,000 with more than 20,000 international accounts. At the same time, Biggs was also instrumental in forming a buying group of the largest computer dealers of the pre-Internet era.

In the years that followed, Biggs stayed highly involved in the IT industry. During this period, he made an important decision to simplify the size of his ambitions so he could spend quality time raising a family with his devoted wife. As he watched the IT industry grow into what it is today, Biggs realized that thousands of small-to-medium sized IT and IT-related professionals could more efficiently leverage the growing IT opportunities with better education, guidance, and resources. While the larger IT companies innovated and paved the way for the impressive advancements we experience today, the smaller player, representing the backbone of the IT industry, began to discover how challenging it was to sustain profitability.

Now that Biggs has proudly traded his role of father for grandfather, his focus and energies have turned to giving back to the same industry that provided so well for him. His current passion is to create and provide the tools necessary to help all Solution Providers and related technology experts, regardless of their size, grow their respective businesses. Biggs discovered that each facet of the IT industry, including the ever-important Channel Partners, can accomplish more to serve their consumers and communities by networking through a common interface–the National Association of Solution Providers and Channel Partners (NASC).

Regardless of the business in which Biggs participated, a common thread connected each one . . .  Success. There is no doubt that the NASC is being co-piloted by an experienced and steady hand. All NASC Members will discover that “passion, enthusiasm, intelligence, drive, and dedication” are just a few of the adjectives that describe Archie Biggs, Jr.

Mr. Waller received a Bachelor of Science Degree, with an Education Specialty, from Central Michigan University. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor Degree from Michigan State University, College of Law. For the past 30 years, Waller has dedicated a successful career to working with various trade associations and independent business groups as consultant, educator, education curriculum and program developer, business and productivity counselor, and expert in business ethics, policies and procedures, and alternative dispute resolution.

The NASC is the perfect platform for Waller’s wide-ranging expertise, especially as it is applied to association architecture and operation. He clearly recognizes that every industry must focus attention on raising the public’s perception of the industry’s value as well as the professionalism of its members. Helping organizations accomplish this noble goal has been one of Waller’s long-standing passions. By co-creating the NASC, Waller now focuses his attention on the betterment of the IT industry.

Another area of expertise that Waller brings to the NASC is education assessment and developing effective instructional delivery systems. As a formally trained expert in public and private education, Waller has written numerous industry-specific, technical programs built around increasing professional competencies. These programs have run the gamut from state-specific certification programs, to custom programs designed to serve the needs of individual companies. According to Waller, “Exceptional associations are built around instilling successful behaviors in their members. Exceptional industry-specific training is the key to making this happen.”

For a significant portion of Waller’s professional career, he has served as both founding partner and President of NCI Associates, Ltd., a private vocational school based in Southeast Michigan. Since 1989, NCI Associates has provided education and business consulting services to the real estate and housing-related industries. NCI has earned its excellent reputation by truly understanding what professionals and consumers need most. This reputation is the direct result of Waller’s hands-on leadership, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to excellence.

The NASC and its Members are fortunate to have the talents and drive of Mr. Waller. He is the perfect complement to the resources Mr. Biggs brings to the NASC. Waller can deliver so much, on so many different levels. Those organizations that have been fortunate enough to work with him not only produce at higher levels, but also come away from the experience with a deeper understanding of how to improve the personal lives of everyone who is connected to them.

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