An Industry Undergoing Change
We\’ve just passed the 6 month mark for the year and while there has been much change, the past month highlighted many and accelerated some. Consider: Consolidation Shealy sells to Border …
Insights
Weak Jobs Report Impacting Electrical Industry?
Earlier this month the headline that many were commenting on was \”U.S. Hiring Slowed Dramatically in May; Jobless Rate Falls to 4.7%\”. The story emphasized that non-farm payroll was up …
Is Joint Business Planning a Dying Art or a Growth Differentiator?
An issue we\’re starting to hear more and more about is Joint Business Planning (JBP). We started hearing rumblings just before the NAED National from some larger distributors and manufacturers …
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Driving Your eSales Rate
As mentioned last week, one of the topics of various sessions, and with distributors, was eCommerce and eSales. The companies that are viewed as more progressive, perhaps more profitable and …
What companies are looking for in new hires
Throughout Q1 we\’ve heard of a number of companies, manufacturers and distributors, who have undergone some \”cost reductions\” (the euphemism for layoffs). This has created opportunities for others in a …
Why Product Launches Fail
We\’re finally through the planning season (yes, it is April and distributors now have less than 9 months to achieve supplier objectives!) and some of manufacturers discussed their new product launch …
Grainger’s Q1 2016 Highlights Industrial Challenges
Grainger released its Q1 results today. Historically they represent a proxy for the industrial and industrial MRO market so we decided to review for insights…(italics are commentary). The bottom line …
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Drive for Data
Over the past month or so Allen and I have had a number of calls for data. Some are from owners / senior management, some from marketing personnel and some …
Ace is the Place For …
You may remember the iconic jingle of \”Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks\” but did you know that Ace is the place for LED lighting? According to an …
Liening Up
Yes, we\’re talking about liens! They types that accounting / credit people like, not \”lean\” as in \”lean processes\” which we\’ll touch on in the near future when we discuss …