Distributors must avoid trying to replicate Amazon's success and should instead focus on innovation, says Network for Channel Innovation CEO Mark Dancer. "Distributors must seek not just to catch up but to get ahead," said Dancer, the lead researcher for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors' upcoming "Facing the Forces of Change" report.

Autonomous mobile robots will continue to see more use in order fulfillment applications during the next five years, according to an Interact Analysis report. Excluding Amazon, the number of autonomous mobile robots in use should increase nearly sixfold between year-end 2020 and 2023, the report predicts.

In-app advertising is booming, driven largely by data, especially location data. US eCPMs grew by 33% in the first half of the year. Native ad spending is up 211%, rewarded video ad spending grew by 245% and Private Marketplace spending grew by 250%, Smaato reports.

Jess Burns explains how intent data can improve business-to-business event marketing, advising that marketers employ intent data before the event to target the right prospects based on topics covered. Arm your team at events with intent data to ensure they can have relevant conversations with individual leads and personalize follow-up messaging based on where leads are in the buying journey, Burns recommends.

Power gone wrong results in control and corruption, whereas the goal of leadership should be to influence, writes Steve McKee. "There's an intoxication associated with power that can be lethal," he writes.

Communicating during change requires a strategy that tells a story and attempts to understand the employee perspective, write Deloitte Consulting's Lauren Mace and Melissa Yim. "Starting with high-level leaders first and then cascading down, leaders should be in the forefront to show they support the message and the reasons behind the disruption," they write.

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