Fastenal on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $196.1 million on sales of $1.36 billion, both up from a year earlier. Fastenal continued to see higher demand for safety-related products, while fastener sales in December posted their first monthly gain since before the pandemic began.

B2B companies that want to succeed at e-commerce need to think about the entire customer buying journey and be competent in culture, technology, people and measurement, according to Forrester Research. "The best teams we've seen have fewer than 10 core members with a mix of design, development, operations and analytics skills," the Forrester report says.

Second-hand data storage devices such as USB sticks are security risks, with 1 in 5 carrying data that could be found and extracted immediately, reports security company Kaspersky. When file carving was used, almost three-quarters of devices yielded data.

Adgile CEO Paul Evans writes about his career journey from chief marketing officer to CEO and how his background has helped him to see marketing as a key strategic business function. Marketing "addresses all aspects of management and decisioning, bringing with it a clear and unwavering commitment to customer needs and value," Evans writes.

Marketers are becoming increasingly concerned about the ethical and brand safety challenges of advertising on social media due to issues regarding misinformation and transparency, writes Debra Aho Williamson, who predicts it could lead to more brand boycotts in 2021. "Marketers should have a clear sense of their tolerance for brand safety risk and be prepared to act if the environment where their ads appear turns too negative," she writes.

Leaders can lift up employees when they provide changes for connection, show them empathy and seek optimism even within difficult situations, writes Scott Eblin. "Optimism grounded in rational analysis and a belief that good people working together can solve problems is a big thing that all teams will need from their leaders this year," he writes.

When engaging in difficult conversations, toss the rule book and connect with people through story-telling and common ground, says Fred Dust, communication author and former IDEO senior partner. "Just a little bit of human can take us a long way," he says.

In this capstone NAW webinar, "Strategic Change During Disruption: An Industry Response to Get Smarter, Faster and Stronger," today at 2 p.m. Eastern, Ian Heller will summarize what he learned from the research conducted with distributors, suppliers and customers. He'll provide a roadmap forward: a specific set of recommendations on the strategic actions that the distribution industry -- and individual companies -- should take to fend off competitors, outflank disruptors and prepare to take market share and improve profitability. Sponsored by Unilog and PROS.

Don't miss NAW's first-ever Digital Summit, Jan. 27-28, which attracts CEOs and senior leaders of leading wholesale distribution companies. First-time attendees will have the chance to hear from industry leaders and experts and discuss topics relevant to their business, including learning from distribution CEOs on our "Leading in a Time of Transition" panel as well as having opportunities for peer-to-peer networking and idea exchange. Use NAW's special 5- and 10-pack registrations to bring your team! Register today!

The pandemic is forcing many distributors to reevaluate their supply chains to create more resilient models. At the heart of "Optimizing Channel Profitability" is a common ground for distributors and manufacturers to focus on making a one-to-one connection among a supplier's channel compensation, a distributor's capabilities and customer value, all leading to a process where all three entities can have constructive, objective dialogue rather than subjective, selective fault-finding. If you're looking to strengthen your value proposition post COVID-19, this resource will help.