Grainger expects to maintain its count of branches and distribution centers, although support sites might be added for DCs, says Chairman and CEO D.G. Macpherson. Grainger has 17 DCs and 287 branches in the US.

Home health care helped increase Medline Industries' revenue in 2020 as in-home care agencies bought personal protective equipment for employees during the pandemic. Growth should continue "through the growth of the aging population and the need to control the cost of care," executive Patrick Twohig says.

E-commerce websites and apps can better serve customers, especially millennials, by incorporating visual search functionality, writes Chantal Schweizer of Earley Information Science. Developers should have databases of images and products to choose from, along with visual search tools that can be trained with artificial intelligence, Schweizer writes.

The growth in e-commerce is allowing companies to reevaluate the sustainability of their supply chains and make changes such as adopting electric vehicles, cutting packaging waste and using data and technology to improve efficiency, according to a survey by DHL and Morning Consult. Companies now have "a historic opportunity to build more sustainable supply chains from the bottom up," researchers said.

Cultivating communities to bring customers and prospects together to discuss common problems and build connections with your brand is the future of business-to-business marketing, writes Leadtail CEO Carter Hostelley. Hostelley advises how to create a community-oriented strategy and how to change approach with events, social media and content to develop valuable relationships with prospects.

Middle managers have a crucial but challenging role in developing reports while managing up to executives, but when done well, "connecting leaders can shrink hierarchical distance and bring multiple levels of an organization together, writes Zahira Jaser of the University of Sussex Business School. Jaser walks through four qualities of good middle managers while noting what companies need to do differently to encourage and develop such leadership.

We tend to default to shortcuts with new people -- little assumptions about how they are -- when getting to know them would be a more thoughtful and productive alternative, writes stress-reduction coach Sherry Klauer. "When we make room for true connection at work and home, we are cultivating spaces where not only the people around us get to show up in an authentic way but we ourselves can too," she writes.

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Designed for C-suite executives, these NAW roundtables provide actionable strategies that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms that exceed $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.

Suppliers are increasingly selling direct, customer demographics are skewing younger and many distributors are struggling to keep up. Distributors are grappling with fundamental changes in the expectations of their supply chain partners. Suppliers continue to report frustration with their distributors' poor digital capabilities. Join NAW on June 29 at 2 p.m. for this free, live webinar with Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein of Distribution Strategy Group, who will recommend actions distributors should take to address this growing channel conflict. Register today.