Fortune's annual Most Admired Companies list was led by Apple, followed by Amazon and Microsoft. While no distributors made the magazine's top 50 All-Stars list, Grainger, Henry Schein and Arrow Electronics led their respective wholesaler subcategories.

Winsupply continues to invest in digital, employee training, additional distribution centers and use of data, says Winsupply Support Services Group President John McKenzie. "We are pretty passionate about capturing and utilizing all the data available to use from customers, suppliers and employees," he says.

Customer resource management training too often revolves around how to operate CRM programs instead of how to actually derive valuable benefits from them, writes David Brock. "If we focus specifically on the why and how a person becomes much more effective, efficient, impactful productive and even winning a few more deals, we will not have a compliance issue," Brock writes.

Kearney Global Chief Marketing Officer Abby Klanecky talks about rebranding, replacing stock imagery with more than 10,000 photos taken by employees around the world and using video storytelling to tell a more human brand story that can be easily shared by customers. She also discusses the importance of adopting more consumer-like marketing tactics to put the focus on customers, evoke emotions and showcase experiences.

Regularly asking "How can I help?" is a good way for leaders to identify workplace challenges, including when employees are lacking resources or struggling to solve problems, writes David Dye. "If you only ask when something is going wrong, your team will associate those words with a problem," he writes.

Delegation can be as simple as assigning a job, but it can be expanded to the leader empowering employees to make decisions and take ownership, writes Julia Felton. These employees will fare better with owning decisions when they understand the organization's vision and feel like they are valued, she writes.

Don't miss the NAW 2020 Executive Summit: INNOVATE TO DOMINATE, Jan. 28-30! This year's forward-looking program and networking with distributors who are your peers will really shake up your thinking, provide you with fresh ideas and critical thinking, and give you a rare chance to benchmark your business. You'll walk away with valuable insights that you'll translate into ideas to help you run your business more effectively and profitably. Register today.

Designed for C-suite executives, these roundtables provide actionable strategies and best practices that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Member companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms between $100 million up to a billion in annual sales. You'll experience the best networking in the industry, share ideas and benchmark with your C-suite peers in distribution -- who aren't competitors. Register today.

Wholesaler-distributors save up to 25% off Hertz car rental base rates* on business or leisure travel when reserving with NAW discount code CDP# 55709. To reserve, go online or call 800-654-3131. *Taxes excluded. Terms apply.