CEVA Logistics has added an airfreight capacity service called Skycapacity that guarantees space on a network of flight capacity. The company has also created a service offering rapid response for time-sensitive shipments in various sectors.

Walmart will phase out the 17-foot-tall pickup towers that were placed in more than 1,500 stores to help customers collect online orders, as part of a bigger move away from in-store automated technology and toward a heavier focus on the retailer's curbside pickup service that has become instrumental to pandemic-era shopping. Walmart is in the process of removing about 300 of the towers after "hibernating" another 1,300, and the retailer also removed inventory-tracking robots that roamed store aisles last year.

Lack of end-to-end supply chain visibility is a hazard for manufacturers, not just for significant events such as the recent Suez Canal disruption, but for smaller issues such as delays, Sanjay Sharma of Roambee writes. Sharma suggests considering capabilities such as reliability, depth of analytics and automation when selecting a tracking solution.

The lack of truck drivers is forcing companies to pay truckers more, raising prices for freight and consumer goods, industry experts say. Companies "have to entice people with higher wages to get them to run the same freight that they could have done if we had the right amount of truckers," says Jim Grundy, owner of trucking company Sisu Energy.

The business-to-business buying process has been permanently disrupted by the pandemic and marketers can adopt five strategies to find success in the new digital-first environment, writes Showpad's Marissa Aydlett. These include serving prospects with personalized, relevant content; engaging more meaningfully via video and interactivity; and prioritizing social media, especially LinkedIn.

Confusing a marketing strategy with an annual plan is one of four strategic errors business-to-business marketers make, but the former is instrumental in being able to deliver the latter, explains Jennifer Ross, vice president and research director at Forrester. Ross describes three other mistakes and how to fix them.

Increase your self-awareness by journaling about your thoughts, observing how other people react to your leadership and finding colleagues who will give you honest feedback, writes Theodore Kinni. "If leaders can't reflect on what they expect and compare it with the outcomes they receive, there is no basis for improvement," he writes.

Author of NAW bestseller "Driving Profitable Growth" Senthil Gunasekaran writes, "Growth planning has always been essential when operating a distribution company. That's why we created the distributor's playbook to generate-manage-sustain competitive advantage. But this year, distribution leaders must account for ways their operations have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Your strategy might mean the difference between stabilizing your business and downsizing -- or closing your doors." Read his post.

Through the NAW Certificate in Distribution Professional Management, which is completely virtual in 2021, NAW and our partner Texas A&M University offer these three comprehensive sessions to help you help your managers to strengthen their skills with the educational foundation they need to enhance their value to your company: Optimizing Distributor Profitability, May 24-27; Generating and Managing Growth, July 19-23; Distributor Capability Development, October 18-22. Register your team today!

Designed for C-suite executives, these roundtables provide actionable strategies that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms between $100 million and up to $1 billion in annual sales. You'll engage in thought-provoking conversations with your peers and hear from industry experts on topics that will ultimately increase your profits! Register today.