In a recent blog post from Modern Distribution Management, Associate Editor April Nowicki provided a high-level overview of some of the trends highlighted in MDM’s 2014 Distribution Trends Report. The trends she identified in Big Picture: How the Past is Affecting Distribution’s Future align well with IMI’s focus on strategic planning and being data-informed.
Following are three key trends Nowicki highlights:
Robust business forecast for the next two to three years.
Growth is said to continue a slow, but steady pace. Through the recession, distributors learned to leverage resources to keep operations running. Now that the industry has reached a level of comfortable growth, it is imperative that companies do not get lulled into a false sense of comfort, which leads to stagnancy. Now is the time to use – and improve – some of those strategies for future development.
Having data about your business is worthless if you don’t know what to do with it.
Data is incredibly useful to management and marketing for planning, forecasting and building strategies for sustainable growth. The challenge lies in the enormous, unorganized and often redundant data. When data is collected without a vision to analyze it, it’s difficult to know what data is important and how it is important. Even after organizing large data sets, distributors need to determine how to make it useful.
Hiring is still a challenge, but shifting tactics and expectations can help.
According to MDM, millennials have a different approach to work and life than previous generations, creating a challenge for companies that want to hire. “They may job-hop, and sales jobs seem to take a bigger toll on them,” MDM notes. In response to the change in labor resources, distribution companies are focusing on new ways to both develop current employees and attract new hires.
These trends point to a need for innovative thinking moving forward. Small changes in strategy can greatly change the future growth and development of not only individual companies, but also the industry as a whole. It is important for companies to keep a focus on the future in times of growth.
Clearly analyzed data is imperative to help fine-tune that focus and to use resources accordingly. Competition is steep, and the larger the market gets, the faster it seems to change. With the right information, companies can be two steps ahead instead of one step behind the market.
