MSC Industrial Supply is focused on increasing market share and profit over the next three years, President and CEO Erik Gershwind said Tuesday. The company reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $748 million and profit of $52.5 million, both down from a year earlier.

Grainger has seen an increase in new and returning customers during the pandemic, thanks to sufficient inventory levels and being an attractive option for business and consumer purchasing, says CEO D.G. Macpherson. "We're doing all kinds of things there with analytics and marketing to get that second, third, fourth order and starting to get real traction there," he says.

B2B digital sales are expected to increase at a slower rate this year due to the pandemic, according to the 2020 B2B Distributor 300 Report. Total digital sales are predicted to reach about $2.61 trillion, up 1.6% from last year.

The coronavirus pandemic and trade disputes have highlighted the supply chain risk of relying on China, and businesses will continue shifting operations out of the country no matter who wins the race for US president, according to PwC US Chairman Tim Ryan. "[W]e're seeing US companies planning to spread that out more, and that's a trend that's been underway for the last couple years that we expect to continue," Ryan says.

Cybersecurity professionals should "focus on the complex interplay between technical, human and environmental variables that shape user behavior," writes Diana Burley, vice provost for research at American University. Lapses in cyberhygiene "are not easily compartmentalized" and "are inextricably linked to environmental realities."

Harnessing data effectively is paramount for driving return on investment within today's omnichannel business-to-business world, writes Gryo's Yasmine Mansour. Mansour explains how "[c]reating a seamless, non-linear approach to planning a buyer's journey sits alongside a data-driven, robust knowledge of your customer."

Conference calls are being supplanted by video-based calls, but they still have usefulness when organizers and patient and participants avoid the temptation to multitask, writes Kevin Eikenberry. "Give people more time, and perhaps direct questions to individuals to improve the dialogue during your conference calls," he writes.

Employee struggles with the pandemic, the economy and other factors are making them less capable of coping with change, according to several reports. Researchers with the Gartner advisory firm say focusing on making teams more cohesive and building trust can help build resilience.

NAW joins business statement on upcoming election NAW joined six other national broad-based trade associations in issuing this statement about the elections next week. Read the joint press release on this statement.

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NAW Institute Fellow Mark Dancer writes that "distributors have the opportunity to break free of the chains that bind them to meager margins and feeble brands. But, there is a problem. The prevailing distribution mindset is that the forces of disruption and digital transformation highlight the weaknesses in the distributor's business model. Distribution is threatened, but distributors can do more. The forces of change that are enabling disruption are also available to distributors. Breaking free requires a new mindset: Distributors can dominate!" Read more.