Arrow Electronics and W.W. Grainger were named top wholesalers in their corresponding categories for the 10th straight year on Fortune magazine's annual World's Most Admired Companies list. Also on the list were AmericsourceBergen, Avnet, Fastenal, Graybar Electric, Henry Schein, McKesson, Patterson, ScanSource, TD Synnex, Univar Solutions, Veritiv and Wesco International.

Speakers at this year's NAW Executive Summit discussed the transformational shift taking place in the industry, writes Tom Gale in his wrap-up of the event held in Washington, D.C., last week. The summit represented "a new level of intention in how this conference was assembled, with a blend of thought leadership, transformation, innovation," Gale writes, noting that he attended his first NAW Executive Summit 30 years ago.

In this webcast interview, Avnet's Vice President of Enterprise Effectiveness Stefan Maurer speaks about the electronics wholesaler's commitment to sustainability and its "clear directive" from the CEO and board to only deal with companies that meet its standards. To that end, Avnet has a code of conduct and uses technology to monitor its supply chain, Maurer says.

John O'Leary, president and CEO of Daimler Truck North America, said the company could double its production of electric trucks as long as charging infrastructure supports more production. "Overwhelmingly, infrastructure is slowing us down in terms of EV deployment," O'Leary said.

Mentions of artificial intelligence by leaders from companies such as Alphabet and Microsoft are on the increase as OpenAI's ChatGPT gains popularity, but Ohio State University dean Ayanna Howard says caution is needed "to be able to get the benefits of AI while ensuring broad access and without sacrificing privacy." Brad Smith, Microsoft vice chair and president, writes that the company is working "to ensure that our AI systems are responsible by design" and offers three key goals to guide AI development to boost competitiveness and broadly serve society.

Sales approaches that are often labeled as being outmoded -- including relationship selling -- "need to be modernized or used appropriately and put into context for today's B2B selling environment," writes Mike Kunkle, vice president of sales effectiveness services at SPARXiQ. While relationships aren't everything in the sales game, branding does matter, Kunkle writes.

Employees would rather their leaders communicate with them too much in an effort to meet their needs than to withhold information or not tell them enough, according to a Stanford University study. Researchers say it's best to ask employees what they prefer, but to err on the side of overcommunicating, even if it feels like you're micromanaging.

Wherever you are on the leadership rung, you can influence the people around you by taking time to learn their interests and showing how your ideas can help them achieve their goals, writes Paul B. Thornton. "The more you know about the people you're trying to influence, the better able you are to connect with them and address their situation," Thornton writes.