WESCO and Anixter have announced executive roles for the combined company after their deal is completed. WESCO Chief Financial Officer Dave Schulz will be CFO of the combined company, Anixter CFO Ted Dosch will become executive vice president of strategy and chief transformation officer, and WESCO Chief HR Officer Chris Wolf will retain that role.

The solution to medical supply chain challenges, such as those that have surfaced during the coronavirus pandemic, could be blockchain, which allows companies to share information without exposing sensitive data. The MediLedger Network -- a collaboration that includes Gilead, Amgen, Pfizer, Genentech, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson -- is using blockchain to verify drug returns and is working on a technology that tracks and traces drugs, but success is dependent on widespread adoption and integration with physical systems.

The pandemic and Amazon's emergence have separately made the case for supply chain digitization, Glenn Jones of Blume Global says. "Certainly, the trucking companies and even the ocean carriers have a way to track digitally, through fleet management, or other types of IoT devices," Jones says, "but we're starting to see more and more of the companies putting sensors on containers, not just the trucks."

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the need for agile supply chains that are visible, can manage plans across operations in real time and can create scenario planning in collaboration with others, writes Kinaxis Vice President Polly Mitchell-Guthrie.

Distributor sales leaders have to show sales teams how they'll succeed in a world changed by the coronavirus pandemic, and it'll be a long process, says Mike Marks of Indian River Consulting Group. A down year doesn't have to be bad if you outperform your competitors, he says.

Turtle & Hughes co-CEO Jayne Millard is a third-generation female leader at the electrical distributor, and she makes a point of recruiting women as board members and hiring people from underrepresented groups. "If there isn't diversity at the leadership level these days, it can raise concerns about whether it's really an open-minded, democratic culture," she says.

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