Hy-Vee Chair and CEO Randy Edeker has named Aaron Wiese to succeed him as Hy-Vee's CEO in October. Wiese was in college when he first joined the Hy-Vee team in 1993 and rose through the ranks to become vice chair and president of supply chain and subsidiaries.
Oil and gas distributors including MRC Global and DXP Enterprises saw sales growth in the first quarter, and they anticipate continued growth this year. MRC Global CEO Robert Saltiel said the company is raising its full-year revenue guidance by $100 million.
Product discounting, liquidation sites, Amazon markets and in-store fulfillment are a few of the avenues retailers are exploring as they face inventory overloads, limited US warehouse space and rising rents. "Overstocks and markdowns will impact profitability but also create new openings to sell, as a large portion of consumers seek out deals -- further aided by the return of [Amazon's] Prime Day and other mid-year promotions," says Vijay Ramachandran, vice president of market strategy and global e-commerce at Pitney Bowes.
Discouraging negative office behavior such as backbiting and providing constructive criticism can motivate sales staff, writes Matt Sunshine, managing partner for the Center for Sales Strategy. Ensuring that you show appreciation and finding ways to allow autonomy also can make a positive difference, Sunshine writes.
LinkedIn's new Collective community for business-to-business marketers is designed as "a gathering of the best thought leadership" on B2B strategies, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions vice president of marketing Jim Habig says. The community will promote conversations, networking and content creation.
When faced with uncertainty, people who thrive are those who can frame it as an opportunity instead of a disaster and are able to balance their aversion to risk with their willingness to move ahead, say INSEAD professor Nathan Furr and entrepreneur Susannah Harmon Furr in this podcast. When it's reframed this way, uncertainty becomes "something we feel like we can do rather than something that's going to rob us blind," Nathan Furr says.
A supermarket in San Diego incentivizes customers to bring cloth bags by giving them tokens that can be turned into charitable donations, providing an example of an effective reward system that allows people to exercise choice, feel competent while doing it and create connections to their community, writes Susan Fowler. The system can be a lesson for companies about what kind of rewards motivate employees, especially if they have found that monetary incentives have not worked well in the past.
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