Tech Data's Enhance, Optimize and Strengthen initiative will help the company reduce supply chain complexity and cover every type of channel partner Tech Data works with, says Joe Quaglia, Americas president. Tech Data is also developing an operating system that will offer a single "front door" for all solution providers and improve integration, Quaglia says.

Warehouse management systems can help distributors reduce worker fatigue and improve productivity, writes PathGuide Technologies President and CEO Eric Allais. "By its design, a WMS used properly will reduce the number of steps and motions for the warehouse worker," Allais writes.

Distributors should take a mobile-first approach to website development, writes Bridget McCrea. Mobile features should include convenient search options and easy-to-find product and delivery information, she writes.

Business-to-business marketers should clearly define objectives for influencer marketing and create influencer personas to make an informed choice about who to partner with based on their industry authority or subject expertise, Ian Truscott writes. Identify what your company can offer influencers, such as audience reach or speaking engagements, and create personalized nurturing programs for each influencer to develop long-term relationships, he advises.

Asavari Sharma makes the case for why live chat should form part of your marketing strategy to offer immediate help to impatient customers and increase the chance of conversions by enabling sales representatives to jump in and interact with site visitors. Live chat offers the opportunity to address customer pain points instantly and delivers analytics on their most important needs, she writes.

A "Grand Strategy" that focuses on executing simple, agile plans can be like perfume -- something that makes you feel better but doesn't improve underlying practices, writes Daniel Deneffe of Hult International Business School. This approach has good qualities but is insufficient unless accompanied by an operational approach that sets strategy after "rigorously eliciting customer preferences and making bottom-up evidence-based revenue and margin estimates," he writes.

You can't be a technologist or a doctor if your knowledge isn't constantly being updated, but there are other aspects of work and life where time-tested wisdom still holds sway, writes Steve McKee, a co-founder of McKee Wallwork + Co. "You have to think it before you can write it; you must look up and dream before you look down and design," he writes.

"Innovate to Dominate: The 12th Edition in the Facing the Forces of Change Series" is different from the previous 11 editions. It's less a report on trends and more of a roadmap for innovation. It's about helping distributors connect the dots between the forces of change and how distributors can change their business to capture opportunities ... and defend their business when necessary. The best innovations are about getting ahead instead of catching up. Let "Innovate to Dominate" show you the way.

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