Metrics help you analyze your business, set goals and benchmark yourself against others. Many like to consider industry benchmarks to determine their “success”. When you look at your 2008 information, beware. While your numbers may mirror the industry (and why […]
Over the past year, IDEA has used a quote that I wrote in its advertising. The quote was in a research paper Neil Gillespie and I wrote over 3 ½ years ago (May 2005) entitled “A Valuable IDEA”. The report, […]
Yesterday’s announcement from the National Bureau of Economic Research that the economy is in a recession wasn’t a surprise. Nor was the fact that the economy has been slowing since last December. While it may be surprising that December was […]
About 10 days ago we attended the NAED Eastern and met with a number of manufacturers and distributors. The tenor of the meeting was interesting as distributors and manufacturers had differing views regarding their 2009 outlook and green remained the […]
Tomorrow starts the third leg of each fall’s annual planning process – the NAED Eastern Region Conference, which is being held in Marco Island, FL (and hopefully the golf courses won’t all be full!)With most people asking “what are you […]
With many companies currently developing their 2009 plans, its important to remember that there are many opportunities to take share, drive revenue and improve profitability in this marketplace.In fact, history shows that companies that take a prudent, aggressive, stance in […]
Now that the election is over, we can get back to our lives. Regardless of your political preference, those of us in “battleground states” are happy the election is done. No more robo-calls (we averaged 8 calls / day for […]
If you secure business via contracts, either as a distributor or a manufacturer, you know that maverick buying, on behalf of the end-user, can be the bane of a contract.Maverick buying is when purchasers within the end-user, who are supposed […]
Last week we touched on some of the challenges that the free-fall decline of copper can have on distributors. And the issue can be just as challenging for wire manufacturers, especially since they probably had to lock in raw material […]
With a drop of over 35%, copper is having a profound impact on distributors, especially with end of year coming up, and the future doesn’t look too good either. In less than a month copper has fallen from $3.32 on […]
