Medline Industries is adding a 6.7-megawatt rooftop solar installation to a distribution facility in Uxbridge, Mass. Meanwhile, HP Hood will buy 90 gigawatt-hours of wind energy annually for 12 years under an arrangement with Enel Green Power North America.
New Canaan Advertiser (Conn.)/The Associated Press
(6/23)
Distribution has a new standard. There's a better way to do distribution. A way that unlocks your company's potential for greater efficiency, control, and profitability. It's time to change how you think about your operations. Find the way
Cloud and edge computing, along with artificial intelligence and machine learning, can improve efficiency, customer experience and cybersecurity for distributors, says AvidThink founder Roy Chua. Edge computing can also benefit warehouse-based technologies such as robots and autonomous vehicles.
Initial base rents for industrial real estate rose by 9.7% in the first five months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to CBRE. "It's e-commerce, it's inventory control and general demand from the public on an improving economy," says CBRE's James Breeze.
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The business-to-business lead generation playbook must change to adapt to buyers who have become used to, and prefer, the remote interactions and digital self-serve content they've relied on during the pandemic, write SAP's James Piacentino, IBM's Mathias Bombardi and consultant Ian Gross. The trio explain five steps B2B companies should take to transform their lead gen approach.
Sales leaders must have a plan for every scenario, including losing a top client, writes Colleen Francis. "You need to take the time to brainstorm different scenarios that could possibly unfold in your market, in your clients' markets, in the economy, in the political climate, and other areas that may play a role in your business," Francis writes.
Transform your retail business with AI Retail, due to its fast moving, trend powered, and fluid nature coupled to an extended logistics chain, relies heavily on making smart predictions. Thankfully, AI and machine learning advancements have presented an exciting range of opportunities that can help retailers make predictions in hopes of serving customers in better, more sustainable, and profitable ways. Get the report
Organizations can avoid producing bad managers by ensuring that they want the responsibility of growing and developing team members and are ready to meet higher standards, writes consultant and podcaster John Broer. "Becoming a manager is different than being a successful individual contributor and there is no correlation between individual success and the capacity to grow and develop others," he writes.
The digital journey: how to plot a digital road map While the process of evaluating your digital technology can seem daunting, you don't have to rip everything out and start from scratch — an incremental approach can be the best one to take. This Epicor whitepaper covers the roles of the cloud and e-commerce in distribution technology, plus get tips to chart your own digital roadmap. Download now
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.
How have distributors been innovating their business during the pandemic? Find that out and much more from 10 distributors who tell their stories and share ideas for both surviving and thriving in a drastically changed business environment. Author Mark Dancer shares up-to-the-minute ideas and insights from distributor leaders based on their experiences and lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic. Order this just-released e-chapter, "Distribution Leans In: Stories of Resiliency and Innovation During the COVID-19 Pandemic."
