Or is good old fashion common sense come back in fashion? It seems as if some regional banks have discovered that they have money lying around not earning money. After all, their product is money. Several weeks ago I began […]
If you are a distributor, and the business has been struggling, you might be thinking: Why should I hunker down and try to ride this economic downturn only to have to start all over trying to rebuild my wealth? I’ve […]
Maybe … especially if we (the industry, not your specific company) want profitability. You may remember SAP’s marketing theme of a couple of years ago that basically of “The best-run businesses run SAP”. With a multitude of electrical manufacturers turning […]
Over the past few weeks we’ve been hearing of a number of the national chains closing small branches. In some instances these branches were set up to service specific customers, in other instances they are small branches in small towns, […]
Commodities and sales organizations have been occupying our thoughts the past couple of days and we thought we’d give you something to ponder over the weekend: Purchasing magazine has an article entitled “Commodity prices are up–hedge or source?” Remember, they […]
A couple of tidbits ran across the desk today that shows the industry continues to seek ways to streamline processes to improve profitability. With manufacturers, distributors and contractors seeking to improve their productivity, technology will take the place of many […]
In talking to distributors as they plan for 2010 we’ve noticed that distributors are following into two camps The first is a large group of distributors that seem paralyzed by the marketplace. They either don’t have confidence in themselves, their […]
We wanted to title this “Looking Forward to 2010”, however, we debated on the word “forward” given the forecasts that we’re seeing. Consider: “There is so much uncertainty about the first half of next year that until you have a […]
According to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, its purchasing managers index (PMI) increased last month, marking the eighth straight month this has occurred. Zhang Liquan, an economist with the Development Research Center, said “the survey indicates that China’s […]
Recently Reed Construction posting observations regarding contractor pricing strategies on its website in an article titled “Construction deflation’s impact on project cost estimates.”The article, which provides contractors with thoughts regarding how to target opportunities within dollar ranges and discusses the […]
