MSC Industrial Supply posts profit gain in fiscal Q2 | SpartanNash CEO sees at-home eating trend continuing | Core & Main reports profit for fiscal Q4, full year
SpartanNash CEO Tony Sarsam predicts that at-home eating habits formed during the past two years will continue. "Part of it is that people have learned during the pandemic that they like food preparation and found some things they can do well," Sarsam says.
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Creating contingency plans for every supplier and ramping up digitization make for more resilient supply chains, writes Gordon Downes of the New York Shipping Exchange. Resilience can also be improved by adding diverse shipping options, as well as by adopting artificial intelligence and other technologies, Downes writes.
Trucking companies are using newer transportation management software to automate repetitive tasks, although executives say at least one employee should be designated to make sure other employees are using the software and manage the data collected. Artificial intelligence and mobile apps also are improving what TMS can do.
Relationship selling remains relevant for distributors and customers because each party gets distinct benefits, says Chester Collier, senior vice president for global distribution at Walter Surface Technologies. Collier also embraces competition in distribution, saying "you need those large, middle and the smaller types of distributors, because each of them serves a different need, drives and makes everybody better at what they do."
Cutting prices or reducing costs associated with keeping customers are typical ways companies respond to price wars, but it can be more effective to avoid price wars by creating sustainable customer value, writes Jonathan Byrnes, chairman of Profit Isle. "Winning the customer value war is most often surprisingly easy because your competitors rarely think about it," Byrnes writes.
People need advice about how they should behave rather than admonitions about what they shouldn't do, writes John R. Stoker, who illustrates the difference with 12 examples. "Your success as a leader depends upon your ability to do the right things for the right reasons," Stoker writes.
A busy leader can manage even the most hectic schedule if they "stay present in the moment and have a process for determining what you need to do next," writes Scott Eblin, who cites five lessons from a senior executive with a day full of short meetings. With their teams, such leaders should demand on-point requests even as they look to help, not solve problems, Eblin writes.
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