Page 143 – Electrical Trends

Is Joint Business Planning a Dying Art or a Growth Differentiator?

David Gordon Posted On June 3, 2016

An issue we’re starting to hear more and more about is Joint Business Planning (JBP). We started hearing rumblings just before the NAED National from some larger distributors and manufacturers that the planning process was taking too long (not getting […]

Customer Segments / Distributors / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / Manufacturers / More Insights

LightFair … a Distributor’s Perspective

David Gordon Posted On May 31, 2016

LightFair, the pre-eminent lighting tradeshow, was held back in April with large crowds in San Diego. Prior to the show we reached out to some distributors and asked them if they would be willing to share their observations as, given […]

Channel Strategies / Contractors / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / More Insights / Productivity

Driving Your eSales Rate

David Gordon Posted On May 26, 2016

As mentioned last week, one of the topics of various sessions, and with distributors, was eCommerce and eSales. The companies that are viewed as more progressive, perhaps more profitable and who are positioning for future growth are driving their business […]

Growth Strategies / Industry News / More Insights / Research Reports

Projecting Better Days Are Ahead … but 13%?

David Gordon Posted On May 25, 2016

Economic forecasting is almost like meteorology. People get paid for looking at data and projecting information into the future. As a distributor or manufacturer, these projections can help you forecast a baseline for your business. And, like in meteorology, the […]

Channel Strategies / Customer Service / eBusiness / Growth Strategies / Industry News / More Insights / People in the News / Pricing / Productivity / Technology

NAED National Session: Predator or Prey?

David Gordon Posted On May 19, 2016

The first session of the NAED National was a session titled “Predator or Prey”. The challenge is that session attendees walked away asking “why was it titled that?” Perhaps the answer is in this quote. The “predators” were the panelists […]

Associations / Awards / eBusiness / Industry News / Lighting / Lighting2 / More Insights

2016 NAED National Observations … Change

David Gordon Posted On May 18, 2016

Last week’s NAED National, held in Washington DC, was well attended with approximately 700 registered attendees. The seminar sessions, for the most part, were well attended with 125-150 or so attending each of them and, perhaps unplanned, there was a […]

Contractors / Customer Segments / Growth Strategies / Lighting / Lighting2 / More Insights / Supplier / Products

LED Growth Exploding

David Gordon Posted On May 9, 2016

Our friend Bill Attardi at Energy Watch shared interesting data he obtained regarding the exploding growth of the LED market … and the growth is startling and has major ramifications relating to the LED market. Here shared this five year […]

Customer Segments / Distributors / Industrial Market / Industry Consolidation / Industry News / More Insights

Publicly Held Electrical Distributor Q1 Reports

David Gordon Posted On May 2, 2016

Anixter, Rexel and WESCO make up the electrical industry’s publicly held distributors. Here’s what they said on their recent analyst calls / press releases (and, as usual, we’ll focus on their electrical reports): Anixter From an article in the Daily […]

Industrial Market / Industry News / Manufacturers / More Insights

Pentair (Hoffman / ERICO) and Hubbell Echo Market

David Gordon Posted On May 1, 2016

Continuing with our quarterly reviews, let’s look at Hubbell and Pentair, the parent to Hoffman and ERICO. Hubbell “Solid results. In line with expectations.” Sales up, company-wide, 3% Organic growth of 2% (but foreign currency exchange of -2%!) Completed 2 […]

Industrial Market / Industry News / Manufacturers / More Insights / Profitability

So how was the first quarter for ABB and Schneider Electric / Square D?

David Gordon Posted On April 28, 2016

We’re a month past the first quarter and publicly held companies are starting to report their quarterly reports. Here we review ABB and Schneider Electric. (comments are in italics) ABB Within the channel we think of ABB as ABB products and […]