15  P o s i t i v e
Proposals for ‘15

Practical guidelines to win in new

Personal Productivity Services mkt

& beat OP market down trends

15 Playful Market
Predictions for ‘15

Watch for these BIG moves to
happen in the PPS marketplace

What will happen with Amazon, Apple, Staples, Office Depot, United, WBMason, HP, SPOT (Spicers/OfficeTeam), Vasanta/VOW, Keurig, Grainger, dealers, groups, wholesalers, manufacturers in 2015. Here are our pointed predictions…

Hot personal tech

trends for 2015

Productivity tools from Apple

Microsoft, Google & Samsung 

31 Dec'14

WSJ's Geoff Fowler & Joanna Stern preview some of the hot technology promises made in 2014 and highlight the likely winners in 2015 and jhow we should prepare ourselves

Amazon Primes

profits by $5Bn

How ‘unprofitable’ etailer boosts

GP without buying better & then

invests more in customer service 

31 Dec’14 (Complete)

Stockmarket and industry analysts persistently criticized Amazonfor its lack of profits and shares were marked down by 22% over the year. Meanwhile, it increased Prime prices and boosted membership and margins...

Staples’ data

hack attack

POS systems infected by

malware hits 1.2m shoppers

19 Dec’14

Staplesconfirmed today that the suspected data breach reported here on 20 October had indeed occurred. Not a good week for unwelcome intruders?

Your customer

i-n-t-i-m-a-c-y

imperative

Gartner predicts a ‘customer

experience battlefield’ in '15.

19 Dec’14

The connected economy continues its path of creative destruction, so much so that it is changing the nature of competition itself. The #1 opportunity for local OP resellers to use CRM tools to reach users beyond the buyer. How quickly will you respond?

SPOT’s ‘Annus
Horribilis’ farce

Tailspinning tale of ‘Synergistic
Propaganda’ reaches hilarious
heights of incredulity & deceit

Paperworld’s

Pre-mortem

Conference

2015 wake, papers overcracks

of anachronistic German show.

19 Dec’14

The Annual Paperworld Fair 2015 renewal takes place in February. Sadly the ‘must-do’ event of the 90’s has faded into obsolescence and the conference should be held in a more modern, upbeat business environment

Blackberry

crushed...

Sales plunge to less than

1% of smart phone market

19 Dec’14

BlackBerry’scost-cutting continues but CEO John Chen’s record as a turnaround expert is on the line as the smartphone maker’s sales dived steeply again...

Amazon primes

NY delivery Now

Race to infinity, immediacy

& beyond. Bezos' 94 vision:

Everything store vision close 

18 Dec’14

As first reported on 9 Dec’14, Amazonhas launched Prime Now, a service in Manhattan promising delivery in as soon as one hour. How will local dealers' react?

Dealer groups

going direct?

Soennecken move follows UK

wholesalers. Will it buy Otto?

18 Dec’14

We’ve been reflecting on German #1 dealer group’s Soennecken’s recent decision to go direct. Sounds similar to moves made by Spicers, Vasantaand US group TriMegaback in 2011. Why are they not focusing on dealers’ marketing?

2014 WebWatch Round 7

Poor or Powerful

webstores?

Wake up! Complacency reigns.

Wanted: user & mobile friendly,

minimum clicks user experience

18 Dec’14

After publishing the WebWatch 2014 Leaderboard Round 6 in October we review the final list of progressive resellers to check if they have optimized the shopping experience for users, especially mobile. Ratings and mini-profiles follow this weekend + Final WebWatch Winners 2014 tomorrow

FAME Index

Best brand

designs 2014

Review of US & UK resellers’

images, logos and straplines 

18 Dec’14

At last progressive dealers are getting the importance of brand image. More and more are moving away from a ‘cut-and-paste’ look, overloaded with cheap ‘kitchen-sink’ impressions of paperclips and stationery. Here’s the FAME Index team’s review of the Best for 2014 (2013 pic left)...later today

Herman Miller:

momentum rising

Worldwide demand growing

for 12th consecutive quarter

17 Dec’14

Leading contract furniture maker Herman Millerjust announced strong sales and profits growth for Q2’15 ended 29 Nov’14 with a bright order outlook

Ergotron elevate

Nortek’s growth

Sit/stand desks & charging

carts energize education sales

17 Dec’14

Nortek, the diversified parent of technology brand Ergotron,recently reported impressive growth gains in the education market for its innovative products in Q3’14

BOSS Outlook

lulls complacency

Survey report fails to address

the most pressing market issues 

17 Dec'14

The latest UK BOSS Federation Outlook survey reveals trade continued to be positive, but less than in the previous quarters. The air of comfort is palpable and competitive threats from new entrants and mobility issues were noticeably absent...

Bandwagon

Broadcasters’

Baloney

Analysts treat Staples as retailer

when 80% sales in business supply

17 Dec’14

Yesterday Steven Syre, Boston Globe columnist headlined an op-ed “No hedging possibility of Staples merger now”. His interpretation of Starboard’s new stake in Staples/Depotwas a typical show of market myopia and ignorance...

"Barnstorming" 

boost for Dixons

Accelerating growth in sales 

aided by competitor’s collapse

The first half results of newly merged European electronics combo Dixons Carphone are in showing the benefits of a consolidating mobile market..

Proficiency Index Survey

The Greenest

Companies List

Who are 2014 champions

of sustainability & ethics?

17 Dec'14 (Complete)

Newsweek magazine has published its ‘Green Rankings 2014’ for US companies. We list those included from the global business supplies industry, plus the latest initiatives by market leaders in corporate social responsibility (CSR): sustainability, ethics and cutting carbon emissions...

C o–w o r k i n g
s p a c e odyssey

Freelancing & entrepreneurial
revolution boosts WeWork value

16 Dec'14
One of the trends we've highlighted in the past 3 years is urbanization and the rapid growth of co-working shared spaces in cities like NY, Boston, Seattle, SF and Chicago. Here’s the WeWork case study

Treat tech as an

asset not a cost

Insight chief urges resellers

to change attitude and invest

16 Dec'14
As demand for cloud and services increase, Insight's EMEA president Wolfgang Eberman warns of the need to change customers' attitudes towards IT spending

Proficiency Index

Brand standing

champions 2014

Most associate brand with

product. Top brands stand

for memorable experience 

16 Dec’14

Branding’s big guns like Coca Cola stand for happiness; Nike for can-do attitude. Here are 25 PPS brands that stand for productivity improvement…

The emerging

entrepreneurial 

r e v o l u t i o n

Bigbox collapse & new age of

wholesaling inspires gazelles 

15 Dec'14

The perfect storm happened on Thursday! Starboard's move on Staples & Office Depot ominously endangered their market future, playing into the hands of a new entrepreneurial revolution, fuelled by the power of wholesalers e.g. Amazon, Ingram Micro, UnitedandWestcoast...

Inscape & Virco’s

positive progress

Furniture makers results season

underway. Miller & Steelcase next

15 Dec’14

It’s the season of goodwill and good results from leading furniture makers. We kick off with reports analysis on Inscape and Virco today

Keurig capture

multi-bev maker

Adds complementary innovator 

in espresso, coke & orange juice

4 Dec’14

Keurig Green Mountain continued its relentless expansion into new beverages with the acquisition of European multi-drink system maker, including espresso. Yow!

Starbucks stages

new Reserve cafe 

Roastery local cafes to create

‘Willy Wonka’ type experience

5 Dec’14

Today in Seattle, Starbucks opened its first Starbucks ‘Reserve’ café a new mini-roastery and restaurant. CEO Howard Schultz (pic left)plans to roll out these new immersive experiences in 2015

Unbelievable Uber

value hits $40Bn+

Delivery service disruptor attracts

investors, happy customers and

bigger business supply resellers

5 Dec'14

Uber, the taxi and delivery service, has raised new funding from some of the world’s top investorsvaluing it at $41Bn. It's incredible ride now approaches giant rivalFedExat $51Bn. Can it maintain its meteoric expansion pace?

Staples chases

Amazon array

Broadline business supply brands

range racing towards 3m sku’s...

5 Dec’14 (Updated)

Leading OP reseller Stapleshas confirmed the launch of Staples Exchange its online marketplace for its broadening business supplies range. We spoke with ecommerce chief Faisal Masudabout plans... 

Change space!

Change culture.

Inspire higher performance

by rethinking workspace design

4 Dec’14

Rex Miller principal of mindShift, a consortium of large architectural companies, reckons that most workers are disillusioned with their jobs and that over half of all office space is wasted. Here's how to transform your offices...

The Ergonomics

movement is alive

ErgoExpo’14 ends in LV. Health

warning: Sitting the new smoking

5 Dec’14

Please stand up to read this! Your office is probably killing you? The 20th Anniversary ErgoExpo started on Tuesday demonstrating thousands of products designed to improve personal comfort and productivity at work. Get first analysis report here...shortly

BYOD breaks
CIO control

Personal productivity should
be facilitated not restricted

4 Dec’14
CIOs want a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy to maintain IT control, but in reality employees will do whatever they want regardless. Time to adapt to the massive mobility trend...

Go backwards to

move forwards

Most research is nonsense.

Decide purpose, framework &

analytics. Assign researcher

3 Dec’14

Marketing Week leading writer Mark Ritson, opines that ‘Backwards’ market research will help you move forward. Here's why we agree with this approach...

The future of

IT wholesaling 

25 Q&A's on Mobility & Cloud

for TechData chief Dutkowsky

3 Dec'14

CRNinterviewed TechData's highly regarded CEO Bob Dutkowsky to discuss the current marketplace and future developments affecting the $28Bn in sales #2 IT wholesaler with $28Bn in sales forecast for 2014....

Do Meg’s Hyped

Platitudes matter?

HP Discover conference keynote

follows same substance-free path

3 Dec’14 (Updated)

There’s no doubt that HP CEO Meg Whitman is a charming marketer of broad brush strokes that convince investors. But can she truly make HP responsive, innovative, agile and less arrogant? Here's a review of its new products...

Bezos bets BIG

on digital drive

Business Insider Ignition talk:

“Treat Amazon as a start up” 

2 Dec’14 (Complete)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoswas interviewed by BI’s Henry Blodgett today. Under fire from investors over low profitability, he countered with his high growth, strong margins, high investment model…

Super 'Cyber

Week' mobilized

Online up 13%; mobile up 27%;

Mobile mix 41%; Amazon up 35% 

2 Dec’14 (12:00ET Complete)

IBM Digital Analytics Benchmarkreported strong growth from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, culminating with a record five-day 'Cyber Week' period for online shopping.

Autonomy chief

exposes GAAP in

HP's fraud claims

Is $5Bn writeoff smoke screen for

incompetence/dodgy diligence?

2 Dec’14

Autonomy founder Mike Lynchplans to ask SEC to investigate evidence that he believes shows HPmade “false representations to the market” over its massive $5Bn writedown on its acquisition of the UK software maker.

Productivity
made s e x y

Microsoft CEO Nadella wants
to help people get stuff done

Manic Monday's
mobile movement

Thanksgiving weekend shopping

spree up, plus Cyber +8%. Retail

store traffic down; IBM reports

1 Dec’14 (19:00ET)
Cyber Monday sales surged to a new record as more shoppers skipped physical stores for the convenience and deals offered by Amazon.com, Target and Walmartwebstores

Ingram acquires
again in Europe

Expands international mobile
lifecycle management services

Synergistic

Propaganda

Of Terminators

VC Better (aka Worse) Capital

reports disingenuous nonsense 

1 Dec'14 (Updated)

We‘re grateful to Spicers/Officeteam (SPOT)’s PR service OPIfor the ‘encouraging’ progress report from owners Better Capital. Synergy used to be defined as 2+2 = five and thriving; not three and dying…

Black Friday Blues

mobilized by Bezos

Amazon attack flattens retailers.

iPhone users dominate buying.

UK breaks records w/o holiday

1 Dec’14

Thanksgiving weekend retail spending is losing its lustre. Predictably shoppers shifted in droves to smartphones for their bargain browse‘n’buy binge, primarily to Amazon...

LED lighting

way forward

Volume doubles as pricing

become more affordable