Beyond OPocalypse to
Before the Coronavirus pandemic tragedy the OP market was collapsing with paper & printer makers running below half 2010 demand levels. The 'Essentials' supply focus is a stark reminder that unless business suppliers' service includes hygiene & safety, refreshments, foodservice, IT & packaging products, the future is bleak. Every cloud has a silver lining.... Weekend
'Essentials' ease
The CV shutdown of all businesses except 'Essentials' supply by national & local government in US & UK would normally close office supply dealers. Those progressive resellers that have embraced broadline business supplies, have continued inc. home delivery, even though it means more, smaller individual drops at higher cost to serve....
Mask up delivery
"The coronavirus (CV) pandemic shows the need to overhaul how to treat delivery & frontline customer service teams" writes Business
Insider's Diana Enriquez. Good advice for dealers in business supply to ensure service teams 'mask-up' to reassure customers & get CV tests if they sense the symptoms... Updated
Hygiene Suppliers
The Coronavirus pandemic has hammered consumers & business supply demand with worse to come. Meanwhile, food & beverage, pharmacy & home technology suppliers are booming inc. makers & distributors that responded to the urgent need for greater personal protection & higher hygiene standards.. We review case studies... Updated
Buybacks v
Veritiv, the tailspinning US #1 paper merchant just announced a share buy back plan at a time when sales & profits were crashing pre CV. Meanwhile, many corporations are calling for bail out support from government as survival becomes their priority. How do they reconcile this greed with the CV pandemic about to explode across the US?
Mighty MMM
Mighty 3M, the leading business supplies maker (inc. hygiene, safety, health care equipment + OP) has responded magnificently to the cause of Coronavirus prevention. CEO Mike Roman and team were interviewed by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. We discuss their responsive action
Z o o m Video
Video collaboration specialist Zoom (CEO Eric Yuan, pic left) continued its relentless progress by outstripping traditional competition. Fuelled by soaring demand caused by remote working and social spacing from the Coronavirus its stock market capitalisation has soared 3.5X since its April'19 IPO
R e a c h for the
Proficiency Post has championed the 'productivity with personalization' principle since 2003. Model behaviour has been practiced by many progressive independents e.g. WBMason, but few major companies. The ultimate User eXperience (UX) continues to be Starbucks. We profile progress and highlight independent business supplier best practices. Updated
Immediate gratification is what customers want. People, consumers and businesses are now used to perfectly executed services — ordering via mobiles (70% at Amazon), with rapid delivery and brilliant customer service writes DHL Express' CEO Ian Wilson
High Performance
The Food & Beverage (FaB) supply to business market continues to grow at +4%/pa compared with a -10%/pa decline in the OP industry. Progressive resellers are seizing the opportunity to add hygiene, foodservice & packaging supplies to their single source business supplies strategy. One of the main FaB wholesalers is Vistar (parent PFG). We profile its progress inc. interview w/chief Pat Hegarty
Purell's pure
Effective 1 Jan GOJO Industries, the Purell hygiene brand maker, named Carey Jaros as CEO. We interview Carey about her plans to accelerate the growth of the 'Purell Solution', to holistically fight the spread of illness causing germs. Tomorrow
AMZN Everything
20 years ago, Amazon opened its 'Everything Store' for anyone who wanted to sell something. Then it began demanding more out of them writes NYTimes Karen Weise. 2019 may go down as the year it lost control of its business & partnerships with 10 own goals conceded
Computacenter's
UK top tech reseller Computacenter’s UK MD Neil Hall (pic left) talked with CRN about topping 'TheTop VARs 2019' list; the strength of the IT market and why he never looks more than 2 years ahead
CCS Media sales
UK's leading independent office dealer CCS Media will break through the £250m ($300m) revenue this year. Another year of powerful double digit growth. We speak with CEO Terry Betts about the investment in people development and results... On Monday
Staples' Worklife:
Last week we visited Joanne Harris, Chief Commercial Officer of Staples Business Advantage who joined from consumer brand powerhouse P&G almost a year ago. We discussed the new vision, strategy & differentials the new team will bring to the busines supply market. Updated
"Tomorrow's News Today,
not yesterday's news tomorrow."
