One quarter through 2023 the pricing pendulum appears to be reversing with volume moderating across most distribution sectors. Dorn Group’s James Dorn and Tom Gale discuss sell-side, buy-side and program improvements distributors can make in this year’s environment of contraction to protect and improve profit.

CEO Jeff Crane joins to discuss a year of change for ERIKS North America, which divested from ERIKS NV in early 2022. We discus the company’s new-look leadership team, a recent acquisition and how the company is looking to grow as standalone entity.

Great ideas sometimes turn into train wrecks. No company bats 100% when it comes to initiatives or projects. But too often management is reluctant to admit a mistake, holding out hope that a positive outcome might be salvageable. In this week’s Quicktake, Indian River Consulting Group’s Mike Marks outlines strategies for minimizing damage and creating best possible outcomes.

We chat with The Master Group President Neil McDougall about the Quebec, Canada-based HVACR distributor’s recent growth and greater North American expansion roadmap, as well as how product demand and the labor situation compares between Canada and the U.S.

In the distribution sector, there’s arguably no bigger champion for the skilled trades than Andrew Brown, who founded eCommerce-based industrial distributor Toolfetch in 2002. This episode dispels misconceptions about the skilled trades, why Brown is so passionate about supporting them and how they tie in with distribution.

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GPT-4 released this week and with it another wave of hype, hope and hysteria over the ways artificial intelligence, search and chatbot technologies will change our world. Indian River Consulting Group’s Mike Marks joins Tom Gale to examine the impacts and implications for distributors.

Leadership teams have several options for increasing long-term enterprise value. This week Dorn Group’s James Dorn and Tom Gale recap some of the key themes from MDM’s recent Distribution M&A Summit and outline the most pertinent areas of improvement for EBITDA margin, growth and value.

We are in the midst of profound industry structural changes for how distributors create profit and remain competitive. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks discuss three things – talent inertia, artificial intelligence and culture – that are defining the competitive landscape of 2023.

Mike Hockett chats with Terry Albrecht, who has been led Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Packer Fastener since co-founding the company when he was 22. They discuss how the distributor’s culture and unconventional hiring and retention practices have worked wonders.

From a trio of short interviews at the recent NAW Executive Summit, distributor leaders tell us about their top challenges and how demand is faring as of early 2022.

We chat with ISA President Brendan Breen to preview ISA23 in April, how the association has evolved to focus on year-round engagement and what he’s hearing from members about business conditions.

Like the industry it serves, the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors is undergoing a powerful transformation as an organization. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks debrief on their takeaways from an energizing program of content, networking and sharing of ideas on innovation, transformation and much more.

As a primer to MDM’s Feb. 22-23 Virtual M&A Summit, we chat with MSC Industrial Supply President & CEO Erik Gershwind and Business & Commercial Development leader Jim Drohan about the company’s M&A strategy, which has moved aggressively in the past 2 years.

Private label market share traditionally increases in a downturn. James Dorn of Dorn Group sees a perfect storm brewing as softening inflation and supply chain pressures add some tailwinds to that equation. But brands are not going away. Our conversation reviews strategic options for large and small distributors to consider, as well as brand manufacturers. 

Ahead of NAW’s Jan. 31-Feb. 2 Executive Summit in Washington D.C., CEO Eric Hoplin stopped by to discuss how distributors are handling the labor market, economic headwinds, supply chain conditions and more.

If you’ve ever attended a Mike Marks presentation, odds are he referenced one of the most influential thinkers on management in the 20th century. For good reason. In this Quicktake conversation, Marks shares thoughts on time spent with Peter Drucker as his graduate student, insights that fueled his consulting career, and what advice Drucker might have for distributors today.

In our first MDM Podcast of the year, Tom Gale chats with author and Day1Ready Founder Jennifer Fondrevey on who must be involved in the M&A communication process and when, along with other intangibles.

What’s out? Doom-scrolling. What’s in? Distribution industry executives will make more data-informed decisions supported by stronger technology and analytics. In our first Quicktake podcast conversation of the year, IRCG’s Mike Marks and MDM’s Tom Gale look at the opportunities for distributors to take what the business cycle and competitors provide in the year ahead.

Leaders from Vallen Distribution, Stanley Black & Decker, LineDrive and Ace Hardware share their insights captured during interviews at ISA’s Women in Industry Summit, which was part of ISA’s Fall Summit held Nov. 30-Dec. 2 in Orlando. They discuss what’s best left behind in 2022 and where the industry is moving in 2023.

Spreading resources too thin in a downcycle is a common trap. In a discussion on threats, themes and strategic planning for 2023, James Dorn of the Dorn Group and MDM’s Tom Gale discuss thinking beyond rebates, the rise of customer self-serve, the power of segment focus and pain relief, and a call to rewrite the operating manual for distributor-supplier relationships and value creation.