Productivity Archives

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A Weekly Round-Up … Channel Changes Coming?

David Gordon Posted On December 22, 2008

Sorry haven’t been able to post some thoughts for the past couple of weeks. We’ve been traveling to clients and been in the midst of helping them launch 2009 strategies and adjust operations. We’ve picked up a number of “random” […]

Growth Strategies / Productivity / Supplier / Products

Planning by the Numbers Won’t Work in ’09

David Gordon Posted On December 9, 2008

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 […]

eBusiness / Productivity

When Does A “Truism” Cost You Money?

David Gordon Posted On December 4, 2008

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, […]

Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Supplier / Products

Does China Hold the Key to Future Commodity Pricing?

David Gordon Posted On October 29, 2008

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 […]

Pricing / Productivity / Profitability / Supplier / Products

The Impact of the Cliff-Diving Prices of Commodities

David Gordon Posted On October 23, 2008

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 […]

Branding / Industry Consolidation / Marketing / Pricing / Productivity / Supplier / Products

Advance, Maurice, Private Labeling, Credit and More in Reading Roundup

David Gordon Posted On September 14, 2008

Cleaning out the office and the newsletters we receive and wanted to share some observations: Tedmag.com and Bill Attardi’s EnergyWatch alluded to Philips changing the name of Advance Transformer to Philips Lighting Electronics. We asked a couple of distributors about […]

Growth Strategies / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability

eConnectivity … Enhancing Contractor & Distributor Profitability

David Gordon Posted On September 11, 2008

Recently we’ve spoken to a number of distributors about the operational aspect of their business. A recurring trend is the interest in improving cashflow. While a group of distributors have focused on better managing their inventory investments, many are looking […]

eBusiness / Lighting / Lighting2 / Pricing / Productivity / Profitability

Recession + Productivity = Profits

David Gordon Posted On August 7, 2008

Monday’s WSJ had an article that discussed the relationship between productivty and recessions. According to the article, productivity during the six recessions since 1970 grew only 0.8%, on average, whereas this year it has estimated to have grown by 2.5%. […]

Associations / eBusiness / Pricing / Productivity

Dueling for Your Data Dollars

David Gordon Posted On July 28, 2008

The competition for your data dollars is increasing. Thanks to our readers, we’ve recently received the latest communications from Trade Service and IDEA, and they appear to be divergent in style.The Trade Service communications appear to be positive and sales-oriented, […]

Associations / eBusiness / Pricing / Productivity

Trade Service Reaches Out to Customers

David Gordon Posted On July 22, 2008

Received a copy of a letter from a distributor friend, that Trade Service sent to its electrical distribution customers. Interesting how a company begins to reveal itself when it needs to become competitive / visible again.Key points from the letter […]