The Women of G & G

Yes, that’s the women in leadership roles at GE and Graybar.

GE Energy Management announced that Stephanie Mains is the new CEO of GE Industrial Solutions replacing Bob Gilligan who recently retired.  For those who are GE Industrial distributors they’ll remember that Bob was actively involved in GE Industrial’s recent conversion to SAP, the implementation of SAP (and the challenges it created which is, unfortunately, normal for companies that move to SAP) and the investments that have been made into new product development and other initiatives.  Feedback that we’ve heard from a number of distributors is that GE is performing much better and, in some markets, taking back some share.

Ms. Mains is a 26 year GE veteran and like most GE senior managers, has spent time in many different divisions, most recently she was VP of Distributed Power Global Services for GE Power.

According to Russell Stokes, CEO of GE Energy Management, her strengths are in the areas of finance, operations and business management.

Her background is not unusual for a GE senior executive. Some thoughts …

• The operations background could be good for GE and GE distributors as it relates to operational / delivery / production performance.
• From a finance viewpoint it could infer focus on profitability and all that could mean.

One thing we know that GE distributors would like is in-field and probably customer service support as these areas have been challenges.

So, in the spirit of helping Ms. Mains and introducing her to the electrical distribution industries, if you are a GE distributor …

• What is GE doing right?
• What are your challenges?
• What would you like her to address?

• The role of technology which has become “transformative” and the potential for distributors to drive “technology innovation that improves efficiency, lowers costs and provides deep insights into business and customer trends.”
• The potential of “big data” to transform business and understanding customer buying behaviors and more and the ability to work with suppliers and combine this information with them.
• The biggest challenge, according to Kathy, is “creating an industry-wide culture of innovation”.
• She mentions some of the new “services” that distributors are starting to offer (and it provides some insight into Graybar services without mentioning Graybar, such as it’s extended customer service hours.)
• And she closes the article with a strong distribution value proposition for the future.

It’s an article that all Graybar suppliers should read and, if you are a distributor, one that you should read for some competitive insights.

Kathy has shared her thoughts on the new era of distribution. What are yours?