DigiKey rebrands itself with simplified name, new logo | US Foods buys N.Y.-based Renzi Foodservice | Fed likely to issue biggest outlook upgrade since 2021
Minnesota-based DigiKey Electronics unveiled its new logo and branding at the EDS Leadership Summit in Las Vegas last week. The update, which includes a new color scheme and simplified name that drops the hyphen, "was designed to emphasize progress and connection with suppliers and customers while reflecting DigiKey's digital-first, forward-looking perspective," according to a company statement.
US Foods has purchased Renzi Foodservice in a deal that is expected to close in the third quarter. The family-owned food distributor works with more than 2,300 restaurants, schools, convenience stores and health care facilities, and its 300-plus employees will continue to work at its 110,000-square-foot location in Watertown, N.Y.
The Federal Reserve is poised to announce next month the biggest upgrade to its economic outlook since 2021, economists say. Stephen Stanley, chief US economist at Santander US Capital Markets, expects the Fed to lift its 2023 growth forecast to 1% from 0.4% and to lower its unemployment forecast for late 2023 to 4% from 4.5%.
As renewable energy companies grow their market share and expand their supply chains, they are also increasing their footprint in industrial space. For example, CBRE research shows that makers and distributors of electrical vehicle parts more than doubled their leasing in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis. "Solar has been around taking space for a long time," says Link Logistics CEO Luke Petherbridge. "But what we've seen more recently is significant acceleration of EV demand as well as batteries and other energy-transition technology."
Cross-ocean cargo shipment transit time has decreased during the past nine months across all major routes and the average booking-to-receipt time was down 12 days during the first quarter compared to the year-ago quarter, according to e2open analysis. Exports from Asia to North America witnessed the greatest decrease between Q1 2022 and Q1 2023 of 24 days, while exports from Europe to North America were down 18 days and trips from North America to Europe decreased by eight days.
Customers are attracted to companies that are not only competitive in product and services, but also prioritize and personalize their customer service and establish a culture that thrives on meaningful work, writes Paul Reilly, host of The Q and A Sales Podcast. "People represent the single unique dimension of value because there is no commodity in creativity, and there is no traffic jam on the extra mile," Reilly writes.
Specific pieces of information can help a sales leader convince a chief financial officer to fund a larger sales team, Simon Escobar of Gartner writes. Escobar recommends five strategies, including creating productivity scenarios and bringing data to show why previous seller productivity strategies weren't effective enough to meet forecasts.
Reiterating your company's purpose frequently and acknowledging the contributions of every employee go a long way toward making workers want to do their best, writes leadership coach John Baldoni, expanding on a recent speech from movie director Christopher Nolan that credited good films to everyone down to the popcorn servers. Keep in mind your company's mission, and don't worry about getting credit for yourself, Baldoni suggests.
Leaders who are pros at building efficient relationships at work often have employees who "are quantifiably less productive than those who feel valued and whose voices are considered," writes Jason Zickerman, CEO of The Alternative Board, a business coaching group. Making substantive, meaningful connections with every employee can result in ideas you might never have heard as well as companywide engagement.
