Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier, Author at Modern Distribution Management - Page 20 of 36

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Posts By Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier
Economic Trends
Defense Cuts Hit Distributors

With the election over, most of the attention on Washington has returned to the looming “fiscal cliff” and the potential broad-stroke cuts to government programs, with particularly large cuts targeting the Department of Defense. MDM spoke with distributors and manufacturers about the impact of defense and other government spending cuts on business and how they have responded to the shifts that have already occurred.

In 2011, a congressional super-committee failed to come up with a plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget. As a result, a slate of across-the-board cuts was put into motion, automatically slashing …

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Strategy
Distributors Respond to Superstorm Sandy

The devastation left in the wake of Superstorm Sandy will be felt for a long time in communities along the East Coast, with the greatest damage in New Jersey and New York where Sandy made landfall just after being downgraded from a hurricane. There it collided with a cold front to create unprecedented storm conditions.

More than week after the storm, many communities were still without power, even as stretched crews worked to remedy the situation. And fuel shortages in the hardest hit areas added to the challenges as people and businesses tried to keep their generators running.

The problem wasn’t lack of fuel in the area, according to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a press conference on the Saturday following the storm. Rather it’s a problem of …

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Companies
MDM Interview, Part 2: Vallee Reflects on Changes in the Industry

In November, Roy Vallee, executive chairman of electronics distributor Avnet (NYSE: AVT), will retire after 35 years with the company. He served as COO and then president from 1992 until July 2011. Vallee saw Avnet grow from a $2 billion company to a $26 billion company. He recently spoke with Associate Editor Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier about how the industry has changed over the past 35 years, where he thinks it’s heading and provides advice for the next generation entering the industry. Part 1 of this interview appeared in the Oct. 10, 2012, issue of MDM.

MDM: In our podcast (available at mdm.com/7Minutes) you identified automation as the biggest industry change you’ve seen in your career. Could you talk more about the other changes you’ve seen?

Roy Vallee: How we operate is so much different today. We used to have inventory in every branch. It was difficult to find and transfer inventory between branches, and in order to fill a single customer order, we would often have to ship product from multiple branches to get the total quantity that we were looking for. Now with …

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Companies
MDM Interview, Part 1: Lessons from Avnet’s Rapid Growth

In November, Roy Vallee, executive chairman of electronics distributor Avnet (NYSE: AVT), will retire after 35 years with the company. He served as president and COO from 1992 until 1998, when he was promoted to CEO – a position he held until July 2011. During his tenure, Vallee saw Avnet grow from a $2 billion company to a $26 billion company. Vallee recently spoke with Associate Editor Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier about his career at Avnet and the role acquisitions played in the success of the distributor.

MDM: Avnet's growth is in large part attributed to its acquisition strategy. But integration can sometimes be a challenge – finding a balance between maintaining the culture and what attracted Avnet to the company while at the same time making the acquired company a part of Avnet. How did Avnet achieve success with this? And how can other companies make it a smoother process?

Roy Vallee: We did our first large-scale integration back in 1993. And we had to figure out then the best way to deal with it. But one of the first things we decided was that we'd document the process that we used so that with our next acquisition, we could …

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Legal Issues in Wholesale Distribution
Top Election Concerns for Distributors

This article looks at what concerns distributors most about the upcoming election, as noted in a recent MDM survey. In addition to the survey, MDM spoke with distributor associations that are playing an active role in educating and speaking for their members on critical topics in Washington DC.

While the election does not directly determine laws and regulations, the winners of the races – from the President down to local contests – will play a role in the country’s direction for the next several years.

It’s important for distributors to make sure their voices are being heard.

And it’s important for “everyone to …

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Companies
Lessons from Avnet’s Rapid Growth

In November, Roy Vallee, executive chairman of electronics distributor Avnet (NYSE: AVT), will retire after 35 years with the company. He served as president and COO from 1992 until 1998, when he was promoted to CEO – a position he held until July 2011. During his tenure, Vallee saw Avnet grow from a $2 billion company to a $26 billion company. Vallee recently spoke with Associate Editor Jenel Stelton-Holtmeier about his career at Avnet and the role acquisitions played in the success of the distributor.

 

MDM: Avnet's growth is in large part attributed to its acquisition strategy. But integration can sometimes be a challenge – finding a balance between maintaining the culture and what attracted Avnet to the company while at the same time making the acquired company a part of Avnet. How did Avnet achieve success with this? And how can other companies make it a smoother process?

Roy Vallee: We did our first large-scale integration back in 1993. And we had to figure out then the best way to deal with it. But one of the first things we decided was that we'd document the process that we used so that with our next acquisition, we could …

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Subscriber Only
Survey: Products Drive Growth Plans

Middle-market distributors are growing, but that growth and the optimism that accompanies it is tempered by a number of factors including weakness in Europe, rising commodity prices, continued housing crisis, and uncertainties connected with the upcoming election and policy issues, including health care.

These are the findings from a newly released Distribution Monitor report, sponsored by the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence and McGladrey, a provider of assurance, tax and consulting services. The NAW Institute is the research arm of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.

“Despite their concerns, distributors are generally …

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Management
Commentary: The Pros & Cons of Strategic Alliances

Strategic alliances between distributors should be aimed at improving business for all participants. But this isn’t always the driver of organizations that enable independent distributors to get together.

“Our experience is that it’s often reactive in nature,” says Brent Grover, principal at Evergreen Consulting LLC and author of The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors. Grover recently took part in an “Ask the Author” webcast event with MDM, answering audience questions about his new book, which is available at www.mdm.com/littleblackbook.

In his experience, the frequent focus on national accounts …

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Companies
Grainger Goes Mobile: What It Means

Grainger wasn’t the first distributor to introduce a mobile app, but the app it recently launched is arguably one of the most robust available on the market. The announcement comes as demand for mobile access to product information, availability and order capabilities continues to increase across industries. This article examines the process behind Grainger’s application development, as well as what’s driving more distributors to go mobile.

Have a question? Check your smartphone. We’re no longer required to wait until we get home or until we can connect our computers to the Internet to get the answer. While this has been a growing trend in our personal lives for years, it is now making a major mark in the B-to-B world.

A number of distributors have developed their own targeted apps.

Platt Electric Supply, for one, developed an app with a store locator and mobile access to your Platt account. HVAC distributor Johnstone Supply created a broader “toolkit,” including a duct-sizer and efficiency savings calculators.

Grainger’s new mobile app, released in August, takes the concept even further – aiming to bring the full functionality of grainger.com to the smartphone.

The Grainger Model
Over the past year, mobile traffic to Grainger’s website has increased 400 percent, …

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Economic Trends
Economic Outlook: U.S. is ‘Stuck in Neutral’

Uncertainty is dominating the economic discussion in the U.S. and around the globe. Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers and a board member for the National Association for Business Economics, recently spoke with MDM about the factors behind the uncertainty and what needs to be done to address the challenges. The entire interview with Moutray can be heard or downloaded at mdm.com/executivebriefing.

While the U.S. has technically been in recovery since 2009, “most Americans wouldn’t know it,” says Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers. Slow to near-stagnant growth coupled with anxiety and uncertainty about the future have led to an economy that appears to be “stuck in neutral.”

“If you ask manufacturers about how they’re doing, personally, their companies, many of them will tell you that their overall outlook is OK,” Moutray says. In NAM’s quarterly survey with IndustryWeek, 80 percent of manufacturer respondents said they were either “somewhat” or “very” positive about their companies’ outlook.

But tax policy and the overall regulatory environment continue to …

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