Linde reported third-quarter profit of $1.27 billion, an increase from $978 million in the year-ago period, on revenue of $8.8 billion, a 15% increase. The company attributed the profit growth to increased productivity, prices and volume.
O'Reilly Automotive earned $585.4 million in the third quarter, up from $558.7 million in the year-ago period, on revenue of $3.8 billion, up 9%. The auto parts company's same-store sales grew by 7.6%, while its professional business saw double-digit growth.
Avnet reported $6.75 billion in revenue in its fiscal first quarter, up 21% from $5.58 billion in the year-ago period. The company had quarterly profit of $184.26 million, up from $111.32 million.
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Big data can reduce the risk of supply chain disruption, particularly when combined with artificial intelligence and the internet of things to predict problems and to generate real-time insights. However, these capabilities depend on the quality of data and whether data is used properly, and experts advise organizations to improve employees' data literacy before implementing systems that use big data.
Millennial and Generation Z business-to-business buyers increasingly prefer digital sales and marketing interactions as opposed to conventional sales calls, so marketing and demand generation professionals are putting a greater emphasis on online content, according to a survey by Activate Marketing Services. Blogs, infographics and videos were deemed the most effective top-of-funnel strategies, while customer case studies; white papers and e-books; and in-person events worked best at the bottom of the sales funnel.
Leaders can use structured processes in meetings to limit the time taken by talkative team members and increase input from more reticent ones, and one-on-one conversations can also help, writes Ed Batista. "[A] starting point can simply be learning more about what's going on with this person in other domains of work or life that might be affecting their participation in the group," Batista writes.
A new survey by Emergn indicates that workplace training often doesn't stick because employees have little time to practice or they don't think it helps with their job. "We need to be creating space inside the workday to develop those skills," says Jennifer Moss, author of "The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It."
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