C&S Wholesale Grocers moves the needle on sustainability | AmerisourceBergen upbeat on fiscal 2023 outlook | Ingram Micro onboards vendors to Xvantage platform
C&S Wholesale Grocers has made strides in its Green Path Forward sustainability goals through work on environmental initiatives, reducing carbon emissions and waste elimination, CEO Bob Palmer said. "Not only do we feed our communities, but we also operate in a way that ensures our planet is healthy for generations to come," Palmer said.
AmerisourceBergen turned in better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results amid demand for higher-priced specialty therapies. The Pennsylvania-based drug distributor -- which plans to rename itself Cencora in the year's second half -- reported second quarter revenue of $63.5 billion and has raised expected earnings for 2023 as it looks to diversify its specialty services business and launch lower-cost versions of branded drugs nearing their patent expiration.
Ingram Micro has begun offering its Xvantage platform to certain vendor partners in the US, Germany and Canada to have a single channel for communication and business planning. Xvantage offers real-time whole-channel visibility, personalized interactions, data management and other capabilities, and Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Sanjib Sahoo said, "It's a single pane of glass for the vendor partners to interact with Ingram Micro like we did for our channel partners."
Social Commerce: Back to basics US consumers have shifted their buying habits, making social media a key part of the sales process. Join experts from SmartBrief and Square as they discuss how to take advantage of consumers' new shopping habits and tap into social media. Watch now.
Daimler Truck announced a new brand, Rizon, for the US market that will focus on medium-duty trucks powered by electric batteries rather than fuel cells. "For this particular segment -- Class 4 and 5 medium-duty -- we believe at this point the balance from product costs, maturity of the technology [and] easy-to-use application, that the battery-electric vehicle is the solution," said Karl Deppen, board member of Daimler Truck.
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Cloud and software as a service tools have made it easier for distributors of all sizes to develop and maintain a robust e-commerce presence, which is capable of "replacing repeatable menial tasks and upleveling the sales team, and enabling buyers to be able to self-serve," says Lance Owide of BigCommerce. "The e-commerce channel shouldn't compete with your sales team, it should make them more highly leveraged and efficient," Owide says, adding that automation allows sales teams to concentrate on upselling and bringing in new brands.
An Anteriad study found 41% of business-to-business marketers feel pressure to prove return on investment and 27% say it's overwhelming. In addition, 19% say their budget has been cut, while just 16% have experienced a significant budget increase.
Leaders need to be skilled in -- and agile enough to switch between, as needed -- both push and pull styles of leadership, writes Paula Halewski, the founder of and principal coach at the Leadership Institute of Virginia, who notes that "push" leadership is prescriptive but could stifle innovation, while "pull" leadership unleashes creativity, but can be cumbersome. Halewski outlines the strengths of "pull" leadership, including promoting teamwork, strategic thinking and emotional intelligence.
Specific subject lines and relevant links can help improve your work-related emails, business management trainer Shari Harley, president of Candid Culture, writes. Upon opening one with several paragraphs, many business people tuck it away to read later and may never get to it, Harley explains.
