Grainger resumed the Grainger Show this year after canceling it the past two years due to the pandemic. Grainger highlighted its safety tools, Zoro e-commerce platform and consulting services, among other offerings, to the 8,500 attendees in Orlando, Fla.

Lineage Logistics has acquired Baltimore-based MTC Logistics, which has four cold storage distribution centers. Lineage also bought a parcel in Australia that will eventually house a cold storage facility.

Fast Company's 2022 list of the 10 most innovative logistics companies includes Flexport, which digitizes the supply chain end-to-end to provide increased visibility, and Controlant, which manages the cold chain for food and pharmaceuticals using a cloud-based platform. Outrider also made the list for its autonomous yard trucks and tractor-trailer hitching system.

It's important for sales leaders to differentiate between virtual selling and digital selling, which goes beyond video meetings to include email exchanges, websites and other online tools, writes David Brock. Although virtual meetings have their place, they shouldn't come at the expense of other forms of digital engagement, or even traditional sales methods such as phone calls, Brock notes.

The top three demand generation challenges for business-to-business marketers are, in order, lead quality, data quality and generating enough leads, according to a study by HIPB2B and Ascend2. In addition, the top demand generation channels are, in order, email, organic social and a tie between paid social and blogging/website, and 75% of B2B marketers say they need to generate more leads over the next year to achieve their goals.

Amazon is facing increasing scrutiny from Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice -- a situation that has not abated during President Joe Biden's administration despite former Biden aide Jay Carney being a top Amazon official. Despite spending more money lobbying than all but one company in 2021, Amazon has been criticized for its response to congressional and regulatory inquiries.

Getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, exercising and taking time for reflection can help leaders stay sharp, writes executive coach Naphtali Hoff. "Like a dulled saw cutting through a thick tree log, we produce diminished results when our depleted self attempts to 'cut through' the daily grind and challenging projects," Hoff writes.

Help your company develop strategic thinkers and an agile team when your employees participate in this one-week course. The NAW Distribution Leadership Program draws on the latest business practices, tailored to the distribution industry, and those business practices are delivered by award-winning faculty from The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. Register your leaders today!

NAW is working with Industry Insights to gather information from companies like yours for the NAW 2022 Employee Compensation & Benefits Study. The comprehensive survey collects data that doesn't just show you what others are doing; it gives you customizable side-by-side comparison tools so you can decide if you need to make any adjustments to your business strategy. Take the survey.

In this week's article, David explores the levers you can control to predictably make an impact on your business: sell-side price performance, purchase-price performance, sales performance, and cost-to-serve (CTS) management. Read the blog here.