Bad advice disguised as a how to compete against Amazon article Vultures circle high overhead.  Stumbling, struggling, maybe even crawling way down below, we see the cadaverous body of the wholesale distributor.  The experts are once again predicting the demise of distribution.  Unless we heed their costly advice, our lifeless corpse of an industry will be served up as carrion caviar.  And the folks at Amazon will dance a merry jig around our tombstone. It’s not too hard to imagine the advice these guys are tossing out.  Spend money on building your own e-commerce site.  Hire them or their company to assist you in growing your very own mini-Amazon.  For our kind of distributor operation, this is a terrible recommendation.  What is our kind of distribution? A few years ago I coined the term “Knowledge-based distribution” to describe our type of business.  In this knowledge-based world, w...

In the world of distribution, people really are our biggest asset. Depending on your line of trade, people costs can range from 60 to 70 percent of the operating spend. When I speak to Distributors involved in acquisitions, the first thing they examine is the list of people involved in the business and their likelihood of “coming along” with the new owners. So not only do people represent our biggest outlay of cash, they are seen by others as our biggest asset. Think about it for a moment, a Distributor without people is really an empty warehouse, a stack of outdated office furniture and a customer list; all of which sell on the open market for much less than a well running distribution business. But there is a problem with the people as an investment picture. If people were our warehouse, the building would be surrounded by tall weeds, the sign would be missing letters and the whole thing would cry for a fresh coat of paint. Think about this. According to the top economis...

Women in Industry- the New Trailblazers I squint my eyes and let my mind wander back to those days spent inside the ivy covered walls of the Illinois Engineering campus.  Drab colors, institutional sanitizer and well-worn army surplus furniture stood against the backdrop of overly caffeinated students hustling, bustling and shuffling off to the next class.  And, those students came from every continent, every culture; literally every walk of life.  Except one thing was missing: women.  Actually, my own graduating class was small, around 50 students.  And, only two of them were female.  That’s a whopping 4 percent.  Now fast forward to interviews, job offers and graduation.  Based on my college experience, it didn’t shock me when I discovered zero female presence in the sales training program of my new employer.  Thinking about the whole thing in today’s terms is mind boggling. A common misconception in the past of women in male ...