To improve chances of success, assign or hire a leader that can take ownership of and responsibility for the project.
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Grainger breaks down 2010 sales, as well as provides insight into growth initiatives in 2011 Fact Book.
Jonathan Byrnes: A profitability turnaround is like ‘getting healthy.’ It doesn’t have to be difficult.
Failure can play a key role in innovation & identifying what needs to change.
CEO: U.S. still has ‘tremendous growth opportunity’ for the MRO distributor.
Recent NFIB post serves as a guide for businesses to ensure stable growth as economy returns.
Distributors continue to ride tailwinds through the first quarter of 2011, following a fourth quarter that surprised many distributors and turned a do-or-die year into a turn-the-corner year. This year will be a pivotal year for many distributors, as we’ll see the results of investments made to gain market share take hold as economic conditions improve.
An extra dose of risk management should be welcome in uncertain times.
Fastenal CEO Will Oberton addresses distributor’s top initiatives in annual report.
In a recent survey on price increases, 94 percent of respondents said they expect prices to go up in the first six months of the year. This article examines what respondents plan to do in response to what one called a ‘tidal wave of price increases’ in the first quarter. MDM also spoke to pricing and channel management experts on best practices in communicating price increases and managing profitability in a time of cost volatility and ongoing customer price sensitivity.
More than half of respondents to the fourth-quarter MDM/Baird survey expect price increases of 1 percent to 5 percent from their suppliers over the next six months. About 35 percent expect an increase of 6 percent to 10 percent.
And just 6 percent expect no increase.
Many manufacturers held off on price hikes in the past two years, due to heightened price sensitivity during the recession.
In the successful companies we’ve studied in our ongoing research into key differentiators in distribution, one of the most important and constant capabilities present in the organization has been a skill to leverage in just about every aspect of the business, internally and externally. That applies to every part of the business cycle and is intuitive.
In research for the new book from the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, Facing the Forces of Change: Decisive Actions for an Uncertain Economy, author Guy Blissett found that 51 percent of survey respondents offer value-added services associated with products, and 43 percent offer discrete services for a fee, with no product purchase required. Most plan to do so by 2015.
But while nearly half place “high importance” on assessing service offering profitability, only a fifth say they actually do an “excellent” job of this. MDM Editor Lindsay Konzak spoke to Blissett about these findings and what distributors can do to take a more strategic approach to building a profitable services portfolio.
Are you a market leader in your sector? Nominate yourself to be recognized in this annual special report.
Companies often go overboard and lower prices on more products or markets than they are being challenged on.
Facing the Forces of Change author on the first steps to creating a strategy around services.
How different is your growth strategy for 2011 than 10 years ago? If you’re hoping to float back up on the backs of existing customers, think again.
I recently had lunch with someone who had re-entered industrial distribution after working in building materials distribution for 10 years. It was something of a Twilight Zone experience for this person. In many ways the industry has not changed from when he first …
Jade West of NAW spoke to MDM about what distributors can do to protect their companies.
Author: “Current relationships can no longer be viewed as business as usual.”
Tax reform, health care legislation, and other issues that could have a significant impact on how business is done in the U.S. likely will be brought before the new Congress that opened its session earlier this month. Jade West, senior vice president – government relations for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, recently spoke with MDM about the top issues for distributors.
After a contentious legislative session in 2010, a changing of the guard in the U.S. House of Representatives presents a new slate of questions about the direction of legislation and regulation in 2011. What does it mean for business? “Nobody really knows for sure,” says Jade West, senior vice president – government relations for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors.
While the recent recession exceeded all others in recent history, several of the issues companies are now dealing with are the same concerns they faced just nine years ago as the country was pulling out of the industrial slowdown of 2001.
Looking back at issues on Modern Distribution Management at that time provides a clear reminder that we’ve been here before, and due to the cyclical nature of business, we may face similar issues in the future.
Here are some excerpts from articles that appeared in 2002, providing perspective and thoughts to consider as you formulate your strategy for 2011 and beyond. The full copy of these articles from the MDM Archives are linked below.
