Learn how leading companies are using artificial intelligence and the threats and opportunities these technologies pose for distributors. MDM’s latest white paper, sponsored by PROS, provides a plain-English description of what artificial intelligence (AI) is and what it means for…
In the past, manufacturers, through their reps, built relationships with distributors who had local market resources and were prepared to stock product and pay for it regardless of whether it sold or not. By doing so, the distributors assumed the…
A $2 word for cutting out the middle man. We’ve talked a lot about the changing channels throughout the electrical industry. Changes are not particularly new to the industry. In those way back years, electrical distributors sold appliances, Grainger created…
How electrical distributors are dealing with inventory in lighting’s new world of accelerated obsolescence. The wondrous changes brought by LED lighting technology over the past few years — the ability to offer your customers a product that provides better lighting…
Here are the five most important things I learned from this year’s Top 200 ranking. http://ewweb.com/top-200/top-200-2016s-largest-electrical-distributors 1. Distributor acquisitions are surging again in the electrical market. 2. The oil and gas blues have been a sad song for an awful…
E-commerce in distribution continues to expand. In this whitepaper, sponsored by Unilog and produced by Modern Distribution Management, learn: • E-commerce as a percentage of distributor sales & expectations for growth • Distributor priorities for e-commerce • How distributors drive…
The End of Lighting as we Know it or Welcome to Lighting’s Innovation Era. Digital IoT control, continuing advances in the solid-state technology and new business models for installing and selling lighting are rewriting the rules of the lighting game.…
There are growing discussions in the electrical distribution community about the threat of select manufacturers and certain mega-Internet companies circumventing existing distribution channels by selling direct to end-users. It is referred to as “disintermediation”, and some fear that such a…
David was an icon in the electrical industry, and worked tirelessly to support the partnership between manufacturer’s and independent distribution. He described his guiding principle in the formation of Affiliated Distributors as being to “promote a more productive partnership between…
There’s a lot of buzz about disintermediation lately and most of it is directed towards Lighting. And there is a very good reason why Lighting takes the brunt of it…. It’s the most complex electrical product vertical. I’ve often said…
The recent discussions regarding disintermediation should be stirring conversation on how distribution deals with a fact of our new lighting life: Some manufacturers will choose to (or feel forced to) deal directly with our end users. Disintermediation is here, and…
For all those who saw Captain Sunshine and my pictures in NAILD magazine, alongside our recent ‘debate’, no, I wasn’t in a boot because I injured my foot kicking Bill’s butt all over the internet, just recovering from achilles surgery.…
Let me share with you what we are teaching at graduate school these days…… from the 1980s until recently, we talked about being in the Consumer Era. That is, don’t make anything until you ask the consumer what they want…
@illumigeddon Solid State Lighting brings both threats and opportunities to electrical distribution. While not responsible for disintermediation, SSL may accelerate it. We know about LED startups and brand-recognizable new entrants to the U.S. lighting market, but what about established domestic…
That was the subject line of an email received this morning from a distributor. The body of email had a link: http://creesolutions.com/Solutions/NoHassles Which started a thought process of: • Is this really disintermediation when there are a number of lighting…
chris.brown@wblight.com So, now we finish listing the Dots we have identified. And as we should have said before, this is not intended to be a complete list, and everyone is invited to add their own dots. Not all the dots…
Chris Brown wants to start something. He calls it: Connect the Dots…… an interactive industry debate / conversation. His recent Illumigeddon blog talked about the changes in the lighting industry that are threatening to the incumbents. That it will be…
GE Lighting, a subsidiary of General Electric Company (GE – Analyst Report), recently introduced the Albeo ABV1 Series LED (Light Emitting Diode) fixtures for a variety of industrial spaces including warehouses, distribution and light-manufacturing centres. The ABV-Series high bay LED…
The last time OSHA issued regulations for the construction of transmission and distribution installations, gasoline was 55 cents a gallon and “Deep Throat” was the talk of Washington and Hollywood. Earlier this week, the agency announced that it plans to…
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