Optimas Solutions was able to restructure its debt during the pandemic, and Chief Financial Officer Jim Japczyk says distributors need to be aware of vendor relationships, how long you hold onto inventory and customer credit terms. Good communication and fair and aligned terms with vendors and customers alike are key for a strong cash conversion situation, Japczyk says.

Logistics executives who want to move supply chains toward a digital future should look to Generation Z professionals, according to a Gartner study. "This generation has grown up with digital technologies, so today's supply chain leaders expect them to be innovators that accelerate supply chain digitalization and pave the way toward hyperautomation," said Gartner's Pierfrancesco Manenti.

A security breach of Verkada's 150,000 live surveillance cameras highlights the physical security implications of not only the company, but also its customers and those they serve. Preventing such a breach starts with reducing exposure through privileged access management, says Centrify CEO Art Gilliland.

Thought leadership differs from content marketing, which is about building relationships with audiences by providing them with valuable information, Daniel Rosehill writes. Marketers seeking to establish a thought leader reputation must ensure content features original insights and ideas to spark awareness and interest among senior decision-makers, Rosehill advises.

Business-to-business marketers can boost engagement with their social media content by posting more often and tagging relevant people in content, such as employees, guest speakers or thought leaders, writes Leadtail CEO Carter Hostelley. Incorporate interactivity into social content, such as memes or video and audio clips, encourage employees to become social advocates, and regularly interact with social audiences, Hostelley advises.

Casted CEO Lindsay Tjepkema talks about her journey from business-to-business marketing chief to becoming CEO and how her marketing background has helped in her new role. "I've lived the lives of our customers so I know deeply the pain they feel, the way they work, what motivates and challenges them, and what gaps they face from the products they use," Tjepkema says.

Procurement ranked second to last in terms of diversity among 21 corporate departments examined in Gartner's Labor Market Survey, which found only 8% of procurement professionals were individuals of color, compared with 14% of supply chain/logistics professionals. Some companies seem to be making progress, such as Papa John's, Coupa Software and Walmart, all of which are working to diversify suppliers.

According to David Bauders, SPARXiQ CEO, "Many distributors may consider strategic pricing to be a relatively mature opportunity because it's been around for a few decades now. After all, lots of distributors have built pricing matrices, established controls and put pricing managers in place. While this may be the case, many still treat pricing as a checklist activity, without any intention of making it a key strategic and financial capability." Read his post.

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