David Varalli’s Big 5 Needful Things for Success
By John Salustri
No industrial professional works in a vacuum. Support, advice and guidance from both within and outside your company are always key to success, both in the near and long terms. In this Big 5, David Varalli, the Oak Brook, IL-based real estate director of TreeHouse Foods, enumerates how he shapes his decision-making. Interestingly, they also encompass the benefits he sees in his IAMC membership.
Reason #1: Building a Network of Peers. “No matter what I‘m dealing with as an end-user, there are other real estate practitioners who are willing to share information that will help me solve the specific issue at hand, whatever it may be. At the very least they can point me toward a broker or another user, let’s say, in Italy or elsewhere around the world, who might have useful information.”
Reason #2: Creating Extended Relationships. Varalli parses out his corporate connections from those he makes with vendors and site selection professionals. In fact, “Those are the people I seem to reach out to most when I need guidance on how to handle this or that issue.”
Reason #3: Broad Exposure. It’s not just the contacts, but the different perspectives that can be uncovered simply by engaging them in conversation. “It’s important to understand how landlords, brokers, architects or economic development people view their markets and their issues,” he says. “Tapping into different perspectives and priorities has been incredibly beneficial in expanding my horizons.”
Reason #4: The Venues offered by IAMC. Whether it’s a Local meeting, one of the corporate-only roundtables or online resources such as Cornerstone, the Knowledge Center or the Discussion Boards, “I can find insights that I can utilize.”
Reason #5: The Forums. Varalli carves out the Spring and Fall Forums separately simply because of the intensity of the experience, one that encompasses all his other Needful Things. And of course, this extends farther than simply information gathering. “The ability to meet new people and reacquaint yourself with people you’ve met before creates a spectacular environment,” he says. And there’s a payoff beyond the event itself: “I find I can always report back to my management with ideas for enhancing operations.” In turn, that “proves the value of my company’s involvement in IAMC.”