Electrical supplies distributor Wesco has been outspoken about its ongoing digital transformation, which really ramped up in mid-2020 upon the company’s 4.5 billion-dollar acquisition of Anixter International.

That transaction essentially doubled the size of Wesco and made for a large integration project over the next several years. Akash Khurana, the company’s Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer — has spearheaded that integration and digital transformation. 

He joined us in the latest episode of the MDM Podcast, which focuses on the different components of Wesco’s digital journey and the investments made to drive that forward.

Khurana joined Wesco in the fall of 2020, so he was thrown into the fire on two fronts — the COVID-19 pandemic was in full force, and Wesco had just completed the Anixter deal. That meant a lot of moving parts and decision-making to drive the company’s digital initiatives forward.

Wesco — No. 1 on MDM’s Top Distributor List for Electrical, data and security supplies — emerged from that challenging period well-positioned to drive competitive advantage with digital investments, with significant progress made on fronts of customer experience and cybersecurity. On the latter, Khurana said Wesco has moved significantly from reactive to proactive, while AI tools are enhancing customer solutions and streamlining internal operations.

Overall, he told me that Wesco’s digital initiatives are enabling faster market share gain and margin expansion.

“The way we think about our digital transformation, it’s not about technology, it’s about business transformation that is prepared and enabled by technology,” Khurana told me. “We are using a best-of-breed approach so we can act with speed and flexibility. That’s a core component of our agenda. And we’re not tied to a particular product or particular solution or a particular vendor.”

Khurana is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Master Lean Leader. Prior to Wesco, he served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer at McDermott, and had other roles at Baker Hughes, GE Energy and GE Healthcare.

Wesco’s digital journey was also detailed in our three-part ‘Wesco Analysis’ case study series published during July, which we provided Premium and free versions of: 

• Part 1: Premium version, free version
• Part 2: Premium version, free version
• Part 3: Premium version, free version

That series will be followed by a comprehensive Wesco report that packages the insights of that series and adds much more analysis, and it will be available shortly in the MDM Store.

Wesco at SHIFT

This digital innovation topic is a key pillar of MDM’s upcoming SHIFT Conference, which is set for Sept. 11-13 in downtown Denver. 

There, one of the event’s agenda highlights is a Fireside Chat with Wesco CEO John Engel, who will share insights into the company’s transformative journey and strategic initiatives that have propelled its growth and adaptation.

Listen to the full MDM Podcast episode via the audio player above to learn all about what Wesco is up to on the digital side. You can find our entire podcast library here.