Disruptive market conditions breed opportunity. In this episode, IRCG’s Mike Marks and MDM’s Tom Gale look past the horizon at the larger macrotrends shaping growth opportunities for distributors over the next several years – electrification, infrastructure, energy transition, sustainability and demographic shifts.

The content at PTDA’s Annual Summit in late October went heavy on recruiting and retaining best practices. Editor Mike Hockett chatted with association CEO Ann Arnott to discuss key takeaways from the event, which included the non-traditional methods distributors can leverage to find and keep needed staff in a time when labor is hard to come by.

When markets soften, surprises tend to be of the negative variety. But downturns can also open up opportunities to strengthen key supplier partnerships. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks talk about the key performance indicators in supplier relationships that can be either early warning signals or telltales for competitive opportunity across inventory and cash management, backlogs, support and strategic alignment.

Decades before digital transformation became an imperative, Jay Platt, CEO of Blue Volt and former CEO of Platt Electric, was on a mission to improve how his customers, team members and vendors could access information – whether for training, customer support or building a stronger company culture. He’s still at it.

Beyond tried and true strategies for managing the back side of economic downturns, MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks look at unique and deeper factors the current market outlook is triggering for distributors – inventory exposure and opportunity, scenario planning, resetting sales costs and the underlying longer-term positive trends where near-term opportunity may also exist.

The Crescent Electric Supply leader tells us how employee engagement has kept the distributor pointed at its customer-based north star.

Our team has been on the fall conference tour. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks compare notes from conversations at Affiliated Distributors, NetPlus, ISSA, MDM’s own SHIFT event, and the latest Baird-MDM quarterly MarketPulse survey. Most distributors report double-digit growth, few signs of slowdown.

In an exclusive interview, Optimas Solutions Co-CEOs Mike Tuffy and Daniel Harms join the MDM Podcast to discuss how their elevation and newly announced roles provide additional stability to the global fasteners manufacturer and distributor.

John McKenzie joins the MDM Podcast to discuss the distributor’s new drone delivery program and Innovation Center, as well as the strategy behind its frequent acquisitions. We also dove into how Winsupply’s employee-ownership opportunity pays dividends across the organization.

MDM’s Mike Hockett chats with Bluon CEO Peter Capuciati about the company’s formation and transformation from a refrigerant R&D company to providing a new database and app to remove friction between HVAC distributors, technicians and contractors.

In this latest MDM Quicktake podcast conversation, IRCG’s Founding Partner Mike Marks and MDM’s Tom Gale examine a California lawsuit against Amazon, the trade practices at play for distributors, and the broader issues for how distributors can differentiate with stronger value propositions.

Our latest QuickTake podcast discusses how distributors’ roles go beyond reacting to threats and opportunities that many have been preoccupied with since the pandemic arrived. 

We chat with Dee Merriwether, CFO of Grainger, which took the top spot on MDM’s Top 2022 Industrial Distributors list. Our conversation covers the MRO giant’s risk mitigation, pricing strategy, how analytics have shaped its digital offerings, and much more.

Serving as President of Martin Supply and chairman of ISA, David Ruggles stops by to discuss digital initiatives from both his company and the association, as well as the progress the greater industrial distribution sector has made on that front.

Tom Gale chats with Max Meister, the CEO of Germany-based power transmission products distributor Ludwig Meister, a family-run company that took an inside-out journey to transform its operations over the past decade.

In this MDM Podcast, our analytics manager interviews ETIM North America Executive Director Mary Shaw, who provides expert insight into the current state of data standardization for manufacturers, distributors and end users. The discussion explores the benefits of standardizing product data and taking the next step into your data journey.

We all know the distribution sector is highly fragmented, but to what extent? A chat with McKinsey partners Alex Abdelnour and Kevin Sachs dives into the state of fragmentation within various markets and the factors that separate leading distributors from laggards.

Ranga Bodla, NetSuite’s head of Industrial Marketing, stops by to discuss how the role of distribution associations and buying groups has evolved over the past decade — particularly from 2020 onward — and his company’s newly-launched initiative to better support those groups with education and networking opportunities.

Mike Marks and Tom Gale explore the impact of recent landmark acquisitions and how the mission of strategic deals runs counter to that of private equity.

Ferguson’s Vice President of Sustainability discusses the plumbing, PVF and waterworks distribution giant’s bold emissions reduction goals and what it will take to reach them, as well as Ferguson’s now-completed primary listing move from the London Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange and what it means for the company.

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