The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas was created by a group of
boat and engine dealers in 1972 to represent and to look out for the needs of
other dealers and retailers.
One of its foundingmembers, Phil Keeter, stepped down from the association’s
presidency at the end of 2011 to make way for Matt Gruhn, who continues to
lead the association today. Gruhn oversees a staff of nineat the headquarters
office in Minneapolis, and has steered the association through a period of
prodigious membership growth that’s seen a greater-than-200-percent uptick
since February 2012.
It was a refocus on the core mission, Gruhn said, that’s led to the swell in
member interest.
“We have really refocused our energy on what we do on an everyday basis,
providing our members with tools and resources and opportunities for
growth,” he said.“A lot of that focuses on educational opportunities, helping
them learn the secrets of success, the best practices for working (and) extra
advice on how to grow, when to grow, where they should grow and really
focusing on serving their needs. That’s really been the secret ingredient. We
took a book called “Start with Why” and we each read this book,and we’ve
refocused our “why,” if you will, to focus on those things. Our job is to help our
members grow, so that our industry grows, and we help them grow by
providing them those tools, those resources and those educational
opportunities. It’s been a very successful formula for us, something that we all
know when we come in the morning that that’s what we’re here to do and we
focus on it very intently.”
Business World caught up with Gruhn recently to discuss the association’s
place in the market, what he considers as its main objective and what sorts of
things the industry can expect in the future.
MRAA
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Magazine
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