October Premium Monthly: SHIFT Takeaways, 3Q Data Lead Packed Month

Whereas MDM’s September was fairly light on Premium content as we were busy with our SHIFT conference, October was overflowing with it.

Between insights gathered from our SHIFT speakers, data and commentary extracted from the 3Q23 Baird-MDM Industrial Distribution Survey and a pair of great contributed pieces, we had a wealth of content to draw from in October. Hence the length of this issue of Premium Monthly. (Download and read the latest issue here.)

Three of the month’s content pieces extracted takeaways from sessions at SHIFT: 

• An Oct. 5 piece by Senior Editor Vesna Brajkovic recounts lessons company culture lessons shared by executives from MRO & safety supplies distributor Vallen, water heating products maker Rinnai America and heavy-duty transportation service provider Sims HD.
• An Oct. 12 piece also by Brajkovic covers insights that Gartner’s Maria Boulden on how technology — when used right — is helping to lighten the load on distribution sales teams, freeing up time for staff to focus on higher-quality deals.
• My Oct. 30 piece walks through Global Industrial Company’s seven-year transformation, going from a low-growth IT infrastructure distributor formerly known as Systemax to a leading industrial/MRO distributor that has quickly become a market outperformer. It’s based on a fireside chat I had with CEO Barry Litwin on stage at SHIFT. It’s a lengthy read, but I promise it is well worth it. 

October also included my two pieces that showed data from the aforementioned 3Q23 Baird-MDM Survey, with one posted Oct. 19 detailing the slow pace of growth distributors and manufacturers are seeing on the labor front, and one on Oct. 24 illustrating the issue of inventory overstock that many distributors are looking to sell off as fast as possible as industrial demand continues to slow.

On the contributed side, we published the first two parts — Oct. 11 and Oct. 25 — of Waypoint Analytics Founder Randy MacLean’s three-part series on how to exploit demographics for growth, which addresses labor challenges for distributors and presents analytical solutions that will put them on track for accelerated growth.

Last but not least, the month included my monthly breakdown of the latest wholesale trade data and the updated 2023 and 2024 revenue expectations shared within (Oct. 16).

Expect November to have plenty of Premium content as well. We’ll continue to roll out more insights gleaned from SHIFT, as well as other industry events MDM editors attended during this busy fall season. Those events always serve as one of the best sources for MDM content.

Also, be sure to check out our third quarter MarketPulse Report, which compiles data and insights from the 3Q23 Baird-MDM Survey of approximately 400 respondents — mostly distribution executives. Besides trending stats, it includes plenty of interesting respondent commentary. Alongside that is our 3Q M&A Report, which chronicles the overall pace of new deals and provides the latest metrics on EBITDA trading multiples.

Lastly, I couldn’t end this introduction without plugging MDM’s upcoming Data Analytics Summit — a virtual event that we’re hosting on Dec. 6. This four-hour program will highlight (and celebrate) the ascending role data analytics is playing in distribution and manufacturer-supplier organizations to build high-performance supply chain partnerships. Premium subscribers and SHIFT attendees get free registration.

Premium subscribers can download and view MDM’s October 2023 issue of Premium Monthly here.

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