Leveraging Data and Creating Supply Chain Resilience, With Guest Scott Costa

[00:00:00] Welcome to Around The Horn in Wholesale Distribution with Kevin Brown and Tom Burton.

[00:00:10] Sponsored each week by lead smart technologies, Tom, Kevin and their guests review the

[00:00:14] news of the week and dive deep into the topics impacting manufacturers, wholesale distribution,

[00:00:20] independent sales agents and the global wholesale supply chain. Whether it's M&A, Sass

[00:00:26] and cloud computing, B2BE commerce or supply chain issues, we peel back the onion with

[00:00:32] our guests into the topics that impact your business the most.

[00:00:36] Mr. Costa how are you? Thank you for being with us today. I am great the honors mine.

[00:00:42] I really appreciate the invitation. Excited. I've seen a bunch of the podcasts so I'm excited

[00:00:49] to be able to take part and enjoy the time that we're going to spend together. I'm excited.

[00:00:54] So we get this right. You're a Chicago native living in Missouri.

[00:01:02] Yep, living in St. Louis and apparently like Kansas basketball. I'm a big yes.

[00:01:08] Big win last night. Rock Chuck were excited and had stayed past midnight central time

[00:01:12] to watch us win and and and and surviving advance. Yeah. So I've you know, I've been

[00:01:19] in a whole bunch of different play. I lived most of the country. I lived in California for a

[00:01:24] little time. I lived in Atlanta. I live in St. Louis now for what 30 years now. I think it's been,

[00:01:31] you know, I've been with Ted magazine for 12. I'm 18 and Ted magazine for 12. Great to be

[00:01:38] a part of the National Association of Electrical Distributors. Learn just a ton about so many things

[00:01:43] related to business. So it's been a great run. I'm excited to be a part of Ted magazine

[00:01:50] and to be a part of an AD is really better career highlight for me. You know, we have Scott,

[00:01:56] we have folks from everything from office products distributors to folks in the medical

[00:02:03] business in manufacturing distribution to electrical, right? Everything kind of between

[00:02:09] building materials, bearing power transmission, all kinds of distribution of manufacturing.

[00:02:14] Give us can you just kind of the quick run down about any of the electrical distributors

[00:02:20] quick, quick run down but then you're the publisher of their magazine publication. Right?

[00:02:27] How when I met we met briefly through LinkedIn which you know we all have wonderful networks

[00:02:32] and relationships we've developed there. You guys are gracious enough to intervene me for an article

[00:02:38] recently on private equity and the distribution as well. I thought I was going to be a couple of quotes

[00:02:45] that it turned out it was me. It was really great. Your writer was fantastic to work with but

[00:02:50] maybe get us kind of overview of the magazine and the organization before we dive into this show today.

[00:02:55] Right, sure. So the Association first again, the National Association of Electrical

[00:02:58] distributors we have, you know, don't hold me to the numbers. The important part is this we have

[00:03:03] more than 400,000 people who are employed by the companies that belong to the association.

[00:03:10] I mean it's a pretty massive number of people who are who get the benefit of what again

[00:03:15] what being a part of an association does and we host meetings we provide education and training

[00:03:21] and leadership development for our member companies. Obviously communication is a huge thing

[00:03:28] conferences and events whether it's regional conferences or it's again what we call niche conferences

[00:03:35] or our women industry form is going to have a thousand women attending. You know this coming

[00:03:40] summer we have a marketing summit that's coming up that I know time they're working with you on we

[00:03:45] have a lead conferences leadership development conference that's coming up in the fall. And you know

[00:03:52] we're at we're big on advocacy. We have a you know a group in Washington to see that

[00:03:58] works as lobbyist for us and we work for our member companies, you know 365 days a year

[00:04:04] we're always around trying to help you out with great amazing staff of people who are incredibly

[00:04:10] dedicated to you know what they do. Awesome. Outside of that then of course we do a magazine

[00:04:16] we do a publication called 10 for the electrical distributor and it's funny because I've been there

[00:04:21] 12 years. When I go to like I was just at it I was just at the biggest lighting trade show in

[00:04:27] in the United States this week and I'll be walking down one of the aisles or one of the hallways

[00:04:32] and this week was actually a pretty good percentage I had five people from behind yell hey Scott

[00:04:38] and said I turned around from and then I had two people yell from behind hey Ted and I'm like

[00:04:42] yeah I didn't even imagine after myself it's not an electrical distributor now Ted like that's my name

[00:04:50] so the percentage is getting better the ratio is you know getting better but you know we work

[00:04:56] like in my crew is spectacular the people that I work with the Ted magazine we do 24

[00:05:02] digital additions of the magazine full magazines a year twice a month you know we put on

[00:05:09] the magazine we do daily news on Tedmag.com news that happens today we post today we do

[00:05:15] another website called lighted which spokes is on the lighting news we use six

[00:05:21] e-news letters a week that we send out to 12,000 or so people I even know it's only five week

[00:05:26] 12,000 one because we're starting to be using the content great great let's see it love to see it yeah

[00:05:32] so we do you know we do six e-news letters a week even though there's only five week days

[00:05:38] we have a massive audience our open rate for our news letters is 59%

[00:05:45] wow which is just incredible so we're excited about the fact that's no that's a word winning in

[00:05:49] itself yeah it did in fact you can't see I got trophies out there we were named the digital

[00:05:55] magazine the B2B digital magazine in the year in 2023 that's not really it's just incredible

[00:06:01] when you consider the staff that I have and how much working again 24 hours a amount of work

[00:06:06] that I put on folks so we're proud of the work we do and it's really important to me

[00:06:13] to get news and information to any a.D. members from somebody that they trust and somebody who

[00:06:20] can be consistent in providing that content okay hey Tom I've just realized I'm looking at some

[00:06:26] of the comments coming in if you could just put admin controls for the show over to Scott we can

[00:06:33] step aside because you know I'm not seeing any comments so I'm doing there's a no

[00:06:40] Andrea I saw Andrea at the conference I was just that she contributed some content

[00:06:45] so we weren't this trade show and it's just I don't want to go too long on this because we

[00:06:50] have stuff to talk about but they basically gundle of them you know it's it's a good problem to

[00:06:55] have when too many people shrill but you're a trade show and everybody's packed into this event

[00:07:00] and you know so imagine you know 10,000 people packed into a space that probably only holds

[00:07:06] 2500 and I saw Andrea there and I'm like Andrea I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think of this

[00:07:12] but it's too crazy right now like you have to email me something later and so she just sent me the best

[00:07:18] through the views of a distributor she works for Swift Electrics and the end of the network

[00:07:23] piece out in New York here she gave me the best view of the event through the eyes of a distributor I'm

[00:07:28] like I am I'm taking that and posting that online just fast as I can get it and so she's just

[00:07:33] awesome I'm thrilled that she was able to give me a different perspective of what was happening

[00:07:37] just got it we've got it we've got a good friend of the show and a guest last year and an upcoming

[00:07:43] guest Paul Kennedy with DSG we'll be talking about them shortly at a nice thing to say about you as

[00:07:48] well so if you're good in paul's eyes you're great in my eyes so we'll go from there

[00:07:53] well that next chair by the way of any indeed so yeah thanks Paul boss he's a special

[00:08:02] he's a special one so let's dive in right and welcome to around the horn and wholesale

[00:08:08] distribution of manufacturing I'm Kevin Brown and here with Scott Costas we've been talking about

[00:08:14] as well as my co-founder of Leedsmark Technologies Tom Burton and lifelong friend of mine

[00:08:21] we get together every Friday morning nine o'clock Pacific time Tom and I are both typically

[00:08:26] Tom's on East Coast today but typically here in California where I'm at and we discussed that news

[00:08:32] of the week both internationally but mostly here in the US North America and what we do is we try

[00:08:38] to take that news and we consolidate it one of the top topics that are going to impact manufacturers

[00:08:45] of wholesale distributors we put all that information into a newsletter it's called around the

[00:08:50] Horn and wholesale distribution it was out every Friday morning to you know eight or nine thousand

[00:08:56] people now and we bring that news together back on this show around the Horn and also

[00:09:02] distribution podcast and live show we get together with Tom and I do with our guests where live

[00:09:09] on YouTube live LinkedIn live and Facebook live and later in the day an editor will have

[00:09:14] taken all this data and sorted it all out and put it on all the social channels as well as

[00:09:20] that published it to Apple podcast Spotify Amazon podcast all the popular podcast format so

[00:09:27] if you happen to be listening on the podcast format what you are missing today besides three

[00:09:31] handsome gentlemen is you will not be seeing the newsletter that in a few moments will be up on the

[00:09:37] screen so then newsletter that goes out we discuss all of those topics and really try and kind of

[00:09:42] use the term peel back the onion and get the story behind the story and how it impacts

[00:09:47] manufacturing and wholesale distribution so we're going to dive into that in just a moment but if you

[00:09:52] do not get that newsletter you would like to just let us know you can do it in two simple ways

[00:09:58] you can send an email to hello at leadssmarttech.com and we'll get that right out to you

[00:10:05] or two you can go to www.aroundthehornepod.com aroundthehornepod.com and all of our previous

[00:10:13] episodes are there information about the show is there and you can sign up for the newsletter as well

[00:10:19] as subscribe to the podcast channels right from the website so we love doing this we are Tom

[00:10:25] where we 83 today right? So I was just just talking to some of your team yesterday Scott about

[00:10:32] your the any marketing summit coming up this summer that I'm looking forward to attending and

[00:10:37] and I was sharing with them at those statistics that they say that about 90% of B2B podcasts

[00:10:46] never get to 10 episodes so being in the 80s now we're pretty excited about that so let's go down

[00:10:52] the only way we're able to do this is there's a lot of costs to go with this it's our show

[00:10:56] each week is sponsored by the company that Tom and I work for leadssmart Technologies leads

[00:11:00] smart as developed and AI enabled customer intelligence and CRM platform for wholesale distribution

[00:11:08] and manufacturing we don't work with people outside of that realm of a school district or a lot

[00:11:14] for a more to call we would encourage them with where they might find a good solution but what we've

[00:11:18] done is take in my 35 years of experience of manufacturing and distribution and brought that together

[00:11:24] with Tom and his team's background of similar amount of time and technology to build a

[00:11:29] pre-developed solution for manufacturing and distribution let's do our companies customer

[00:11:36] spine that they're about 70% ready right out of the box with our product because we've taken

[00:11:41] our experience we do customer intelligence and CRM in a very different way to bring deep insights

[00:11:46] and analytics to things that people have never been able to see before about their customers

[00:11:50] their teams and their business so links marks our sponsor we're appreciative of that and Tom

[00:11:55] anything to add to that before we dive into the news no other than we don't have a 59% open right yet

[00:12:02] so yeah and I have to have to tap you on that for our newsletter here that's exactly

[00:12:08] that good so in the news letter each week we break it down into segments we've talked about the

[00:12:14] economy and supply chain and manufacturing and distribution and our first article that we published

[00:12:20] this week came from the American Journal of Trucking and it was talks about a report that

[00:12:27] thanks the cost of electrifying US commercial truck fleet at a trillion dollars that's not a

[00:12:34] small amount of money so moving to electrification certainly the current administration is very very

[00:12:42] focused on that Scott any immediate thoughts on that I know it probably is exciting I had gone

[00:12:48] into thinking about just the trucking fleets and the costs of all of that and you've got

[00:12:52] I think some thoughts on the opportunity to lies with that I did you know we can go negative

[00:12:57] we can go positive here so well it's well I tell you this much a question the number a

[00:13:03] trillion dollars just you know we Congress right now is talking about funding the government for

[00:13:11] 1.2 trillion before tonight's deadline so only 200 million more than what it's going to cost

[00:13:16] to put trucks on the road I mean our defense budget the budget that we use to defend our

[00:13:22] country is like 860 billion this is 200 billion whatever 1440 billion more than that I mean it's just

[00:13:30] I question the number and then I question the cost per truck so I did a little research and found

[00:13:38] that there's whatever 16 million you know commercial trucks on the road divide that into one

[00:13:46] trillion I'm horrible at math but that's like 74,000 dollars a truck and that just doesn't seem to

[00:13:52] add up to me I mean I don't see the return on the investment yeah the positive side is members of any

[00:13:59] AD they make the products that are going to be electrifying the US whether it's EV charges the

[00:14:06] wire the again this you know this is all going to put a strain on utilities so we have to talk about

[00:14:11] microgrids and batteries and solar or wind or other ways that we're going to be able to power these things

[00:14:16] that charge these trucks our member companies make all that stuff they buy that stuff sell that stuff

[00:14:22] so if you don't want to be greedy and you just I try again horrible at math so somebody check this for me

[00:14:29] if you just want to take one 10,000 of 1% of one trillion it's 100 million dollars

[00:14:39] so okay I mean the difference between the other trillion is radical rad so so I'm wondering Scott at

[00:14:46] this number includes the infrastructure like the charging stations and all that stuff right exactly

[00:14:53] it wasn't going to go to the stations it didn't no one think it didn't include was the actual

[00:14:59] buying the vehicles yeah the vehicles themselves right it included utility upgrades and charging

[00:15:06] infrastructure they don't that was one of the things it talked to as well right we've got

[00:15:13] everything in the rea we're reason I wanted to talk about this today right is you know we've got

[00:15:19] a couple of comments made earlier in the show from you know any any members who are large distributors

[00:15:25] and they have large fleets and depending on the size of a distributor or a manufacturer they

[00:15:31] may have semi trucks all the way down to pick-up trucks and every type of vehicle in between that

[00:15:37] that's moving between branches moving between distribution centers delivering to customers and so forth

[00:15:43] you know there is a continued ongoing push for special delivery of California is

[00:15:52] mandating all electrical right all you know internal combustion or engines or ice vehicles being

[00:15:59] you know limited or gone over a period of years and it was interesting one of the things

[00:16:04] came out in this article as you know it typically a class eight truck which could be a

[00:16:08] large delivery truck or a semi truck is roughly $180,000 where when you do that with a battery

[00:16:17] power and electric truck it moves up to over $400,000 right now you trickle that down right no

[00:16:24] pun intended in electrical there but you start looking at that just even the pick-ups trucks right

[00:16:31] whether it's a afford lightning pick-up truck or it's a mid-sized you know delivery vehicle there's

[00:16:39] a lot of that not just infrastructure costs and also distributors and manufacturers are going

[00:16:45] to need to build that infrastructure on their sites and locations and branches as well so

[00:16:50] you know this is again I made the comment earlier peel them back the onion or story behind the story

[00:16:56] and that's what we always try and talk about here on our show each week is what does that really

[00:17:02] mean and I think this is something that we've got to keep a really close eye on a little continue

[00:17:06] to talk about it as we see you know potential potential policy or legislation about it because it means a lot

[00:17:13] no doubt and we've seen legislation already when there are a number of states that have said you can't

[00:17:19] sell gas powered vehicles after 30 or 20 35 so as you're talking about again it's simple as

[00:17:27] those pickup trucks as those wear out because they get a lot of miles on them because they deliver a

[00:17:32] lot of stuff we're not going to have the opportunity to replace them with another combustible engine

[00:17:38] we're going to have to you know and then the expense starts to get like you were talking about a little

[00:17:43] bit of extreme for distribution to have to keep pace yeah well hope we're not losing any of our

[00:17:51] any of our listeners today on this I don't mean it all for this to be doom and gloom because there's

[00:17:55] like you know obviously at another side of this it could be beneficial to the environment and so

[00:18:01] forward but you know these are things that we're planning for and boards need to be thinking about

[00:18:06] this right is by getting for it and planning down the road because you stop to think about

[00:18:12] whether you've got you know three branches or you've got 35 branches there's going to be a fixed

[00:18:20] cost of that solar charter the electrical charging station should be out fit with solar what should

[00:18:26] we be dealing so something will continue to keep talking about on the show here so what do we

[00:18:30] jump ahead here time to that next article that came from I&PO magazine about McKinsey having a

[00:18:38] study and some perspective on takeaways that they have regarding shifts in supply chain

[00:18:44] any thoughts from you guys to start off on this? I do any take on this and look pretty similar

[00:18:50] to a lot of the things we've been in reading the article a lot of the stuff we've been talking

[00:18:54] about over the last few weeks yeah yeah exactly I think that um so a couple of things that come

[00:19:00] to mind on this is one you know we've said it's the play chain issues and there's still

[00:19:07] long wait times on a number of products which is scary so obviously getting manufacturing done

[00:19:14] closer to the you know what but what Amazon calls the last mile getting manufacturing done closer

[00:19:22] to choose your customers obviously is important and so that's essential and then the second part

[00:19:29] customers are interested in sustainability sustainable products they're interested in and

[00:19:38] origination of where that product was made now and so these are all I think factors toward

[00:19:45] where manufacturers are shifting their focus and just whatever it was a week or so ago you know

[00:19:53] Schneider Electracuse one of our members announced that they're investing 140 million down

[00:19:58] or 30 million yeah we talked about that last week and their plant in Tennessee and they're going

[00:20:03] to hire 750 more people and they were you know again they these are these are big issues I think as far

[00:20:10] as getting you know getting stuff made closer to where it's going to be installed the kind of

[00:20:17] ease what's been a supply chain problem now for three and a half or four years you know it's

[00:20:22] definitely better than issue well that's a good point to come from this article as well right

[00:20:27] there's been problems long before the pandemic pandemic triggered a lot of things because

[00:20:33] ships weren't able to leave China on and the way that's the other thing but the red sea we can

[00:20:38] talk about that forever right so now we've got Panama Canal issues we talked about this right

[00:20:45] Panama Canal issues we've got some of this canal issues we've got geopolitical tensions

[00:20:50] and so for the week we've talked about this on an ongoing basis here and I think it's important

[00:20:55] that we bring this to light and continue to try and get people thinking about this just from

[00:20:59] the standpoint of the impact that I can have on the business you know I always like to make sure that

[00:21:04] we see you for us to kind of pontificate but this is the survey had some really good information

[00:21:09] right it's a 95% of the survey companies reported challenges with their supply chain footprint

[00:21:15] in the last 12 months so just because we've come out of the pandemic time it's this is saying

[00:21:20] that's not changing right because you know we've had and we talked about this regularly right

[00:21:25] pork strikes you know so as canals we just said Panama Canal and so forth it's at 50%

[00:21:32] report of their supply chains were rely on other another region and 89% plan to reduce their

[00:21:40] dependency with the focus on Western Europe and Southeast Asia so moving away from China in a big

[00:21:46] part of the second area of this article is talking about and the the big single biggest word

[00:21:50] the the data is article for me was resilience right we've got to have resilience built into our

[00:21:56] supply chain whether you're a manufacturer or a distributor and understanding where things are

[00:22:01] coming from those issues they talk so much about people moving away from China and it's not leaving

[00:22:08] China it's shifting because there are one you know there's a great amount of you know US-based

[00:22:17] manufacturers that are manufacturing in China that are manufacturing China for the Chinese market

[00:22:22] right that's not leaving but when we start looking at how are we supplying Europe and how

[00:22:28] are we supplying the Americas little bit different challenge that the they're starting to look at so

[00:22:34] 64% said regionalizing their supply chains was important and another 66% brought suppliers closer to

[00:22:43] their main markets or that last mile like you were mentioning Scott with a 30% growth of that year

[00:22:50] over year and we're going to continue to see this right the geopolitical tension right now between

[00:22:58] US and China and then China and Taiwan these are big issues right and gotta keep supply chain moving

[00:23:07] demand has not gone away you know in the world yet the not an economist I don't want to pretend

[00:23:15] to be one I took an economy class in college it didn't go well so I'm not trying to say that but you

[00:23:21] know there were dozens if not 100 economists in 2021 who insisted we'd be in a recession but the end of

[00:23:29] 2020 21 and now we're almost half a through 2024 and so I don't think that demand especially again

[00:23:38] on that I can always speak for the construction side you know backlogs are still fairly solid

[00:23:44] jobs are still available I was just in New York City there's cranes in the air people are

[00:23:50] doing big projects and small so I don't I think supply chain issues are gonna hang over us if we

[00:23:56] don't start doing some things to speed that up a little bit keep it going to mean you know I

[00:24:02] think they think you're right with that just a couple of last last topic comments on this it said

[00:24:08] from the article said one example on the nearshore topic it says when that whole nearshore

[00:24:13] discussion started everyone said we need to nearshore you know and that was you know pre-pandemic

[00:24:19] but it became a big issue during the pandemic says it stabilized a bit 2022 and then now this

[00:24:27] the articles research said that the political tension has really pushed things over the top

[00:24:33] to really get a peak going of the discussion about nearshore so I think it's interesting or I

[00:24:39] we see tons of this moving to Latin America not just Mexico, the part of its Mexico with NAFTA

[00:24:45] but a lot of it to Latin American general the last thing I'll say on this though the

[00:24:49] historical talk about that I was really surprised about was it there was a discussion about

[00:24:56] the lack of awareness of some of this aboard's of directors and that was part of their research

[00:25:02] was that surprisingly not enough board of directors are bringing these topics up and are even

[00:25:09] clearly aware of it as opposed to you know senior management within a company so that

[00:25:14] that startled me a little bit yeah yeah I agree but so many thoughts on that before we jump ahead

[00:25:21] no let's move on okay what's next Tom let's you dive in on the manufacturing distribution

[00:25:29] ties right more back into that whole resiliency idea again right yeah I mean I think we're just you know

[00:25:34] next article and innovation led industrial policy for US manufacturing okay it was same sort of

[00:25:41] thing right we highlighted issues surrounding supply chain and all of that and um in the ability

[00:25:48] to kind of withstand those shocks but it does look like there is actually a fair amount of

[00:25:54] at least innovation happening on the manufacturing side more so potentially than even happening

[00:25:59] on the distributor side of things maybe it's trickling down as you just said along along the way

[00:26:06] Scott you have any thoughts here um I have some thoughts but I think more of a question in terms

[00:26:12] of you know for both of you in terms of you know what's the what's the cost of innovative

[00:26:18] I mean what do you think the cost of innovation is and where do you think that tipping point lies you

[00:26:24] know it's like yeah I want to be innovative in order to be innovative I have to invest

[00:26:29] dollars or percentage of what my whatever bottom line is now is not going to go toward

[00:26:34] something else it's going to go toward changing the way I whatever manufacturer my products whatever

[00:26:41] might not be but what do you think that balance I don't know where do you think that balance lies in

[00:26:46] terms of when manufacturers are going to say you know what it's it's great to be innovative but I

[00:26:51] can't go out of business either but it's a good question I'm not sure the exact answer to

[00:26:58] now I'm not either what you're describing I don't know that there is an answer and

[00:27:04] you know I say sometimes I feel like you know one I wouldn't suggest to your point earlier

[00:27:08] about not being an economist I'm not either I just pretend to be one on Fridays for an hour

[00:27:14] there we go right but but the I think what I'm looking at with this and again this article

[00:27:22] is to last two articles I very well together right the resiliency and it just makes me think of

[00:27:29] a quote that we discussed on was when they are because we talked about in last week's show

[00:27:34] and it talked about historically we've seen this you know near shore on shore offshore discussions

[00:27:41] that kind of peaked and valley and it's just always been trying to China China China China

[00:27:46] if you want to do something you know that's that's reasonably priced that's changing

[00:27:52] I mentioned it's all the time right is China be has a middle class but the article last week

[00:27:58] coming about this is this isn't a topic that just gonna come up here in there now

[00:28:02] this is something we need to be focused on in our business every day is working on supply chain now

[00:28:08] we see all over the place you know supply chain analyst titles and this that any other

[00:28:15] what I believe is was we talked about resiliency is there's never probably been a more important

[00:28:21] time to have clarity and understanding of your supply chain and if you're a distributor that means

[00:28:27] in Mike Mortonson that was on with this couple weeks ago from from ARG industrial we were

[00:28:34] Mike was talking about this as well as you know never before having had the closeness and relationships

[00:28:41] with manufacturers to understand their supply chain right because historically you know

[00:28:47] and I remember when I was you know back in 93 to 2003 and I was a manufacturer's rep and

[00:28:53] you know a distributor had you know an A.B. and a C source for items and so forth and

[00:28:59] they just kind of relied on them based upon brand or price or availability that those days are gone

[00:29:07] right but we have to really understand because the the risk of this is if you're tied to the wrong

[00:29:12] suppliers and the suppliers don't have a resilient supply chain for you impacts your growth in your business

[00:29:20] now maybe it's not that you you know are having a close branch as a late people off but

[00:29:25] you're probably not gonna make your growth initiatives and if you don't understand where they're at

[00:29:30] you can't prepare for so I think the issue is and I don't know if I'm answering your question

[00:29:35] but my belief is I don't know where that tipping point that you mentioned is what I do know is

[00:29:41] if you want to be accelerating growth in the future you need to be supply chain resilient

[00:29:47] and that's not just a sentence that's a some of the people have to live

[00:29:55] agreed agreed and the um again the partnership part really is I think essential too in terms

[00:30:02] of you know making sure that your partners are aware of the commitments that you're making Andrea

[00:30:08] Andrea hope you're still here I hope you remember this this was like eight or nine or 10 years ago

[00:30:13] we were at a conference together and any of you have been together and we were unveiling some research

[00:30:17] we did on partnerships and literally 90% of distributors which was the flip side of 92%

[00:30:26] of manufacturers said that they would like to quote reimagine their partnerships with their supply

[00:30:33] chain partners because they are not happy with them and this was years ago and I remember Andrea

[00:30:38] and I was looking at you like that's nine out of ten nine out of ten you can't learn how to

[00:30:43] have your partners and so do your point now it's like the strength of partnership today I think is

[00:30:50] so incredibly valuable to make sure that folks realize again your partners realize up and down

[00:30:57] the chain what you're doing why you're doing it how you're helping them while you're investing in

[00:31:03] yourself all seems to be so essential today and we'll be in the future yeah I agree last piece on this

[00:31:12] article is got a lot more things to cover today is it talks about policy and there as well

[00:31:16] I just from what we've just been through I think policy becomes secondary to all of this it's nice

[00:31:23] if there's some policy that's beneficial but it talks about it says industrial policy

[00:31:28] governmental policy has written a balance social concerns national security and economic

[00:31:34] dynamism priories include job creation wage levels and domestic resiliency so resiliency

[00:31:43] everywhere we look is that and you know what does that mean it means I understand and I'm not

[00:31:48] gonna I can adjust in the depth and bounce back if there's issues because I have an understanding and

[00:31:54] clarity to things within my own supply chain so anyways I can't imagine this isn't going to be

[00:32:02] you know sometimes I'll mention I think we just talked about this last week you know in some

[00:32:06] of the articles but you know what that's how our role here is to bring up and what one of

[00:32:11] the reasons we're here is to bring up topics within manufacturing and distribution that are going

[00:32:17] to be impacting them and in each week we seem to have a little bit of a little bit bend on things

[00:32:23] and but this resiliency thing I think is going to be an ongoing topic for us so

[00:32:29] Tom let's jump ahead you know let's go ahead yeah this is everything the things that we've never

[00:32:34] talked about data yeah very good this is an article from modern distribution management

[00:32:42] that is great a dance here from from any W put this up post to dishonest LinkedIn

[00:32:51] this morning about the cool this is about time I data driven decisions and learn to trust

[00:32:56] your information I comment on dance post that we would be talking about this year today

[00:33:00] Tom you want to kind of dive into that a little bit about data since you're the data guy and

[00:33:05] on the show and it leads work yeah well I find it interesting right is that I'll get the exact quote

[00:33:10] here exact quote was is 70% of a survey of 200 distributors 70% most of or half of them

[00:33:19] my apologies they say how very low data maturity today yep but 70% say they will have high data maturity

[00:33:26] within three years so a couple things that jump out with me on that one is obviously they're

[00:33:32] starting to take data seriously right we've been talking about this for you know a year or whatever

[00:33:38] are longer the one thing that I wonder about is what they mean by data matured

[00:33:46] and is it mean that they're going to go in and clean up their data making sure that you know

[00:33:50] data hygiene or what is really else is going on to clean up that data to make it ready for AI and

[00:33:59] other analytics so it didn't get into that in the article I'm hoping that a lot of people are not

[00:34:05] just thinking well I'm going in no Kevin I think we have a call later today with a customer who

[00:34:09] wants to talk about their their data and their data situation you know the data hygiene the part

[00:34:16] of you know email addresses being correct and phone numbers being correct and all that that's just

[00:34:21] one little piece of it the second maybe more important piece of it is what data are you actually

[00:34:26] going to be incorporating into AI and your data lakes and so forth to drive a lot of what you're doing

[00:34:32] so didn't get into that at least there seems to be some real attention on this now.

[00:34:38] Scott any thoughts but your background in experience within any media about data that there

[00:34:43] relates to this a couple of things you know it doesn't help to make strategy off of dirty data

[00:34:51] because it's you know it's it's going to be incorrect and I'm I don't say what I was I guess a

[00:34:58] data guy like I I firmly believe that if you have a restaurant and you know traffic flow

[00:35:04] and you know what your revenue is per night and you know what the you know what what items don't

[00:35:11] sell what items do sell you can you know you can determine how much food you should order what your

[00:35:16] scheduling should be when you have specials what you should be pricing things and data should

[00:35:20] be able to tell you all those and I believe in all that I'm not trying to say that I don't but I was

[00:35:24] talking with her networks former football coach who you played a win the game guy for those who

[00:35:31] don't remember who he was um who's our keynote speaker in in south central conference that any

[00:35:38] idea just in in February and we were talking backstage about data and being data driven and he said

[00:35:46] yeah you should trust your data but there are times you have to trust your eyeballs too and he said

[00:35:51] the the point that he was making was you know his to his data show that 17 times out of a hundred

[00:35:59] on fourth and one and a half yard we make it which is great and then you look over the other team

[00:36:05] and and re-luis is the linebacker and he's yeah screaming at people in blood is rolling down his

[00:36:10] face and the data doesn't show you that and you're like no no we're gonna pop because I'm not going

[00:36:14] to my eyeballs say I appreciate the data but the data doesn't show me that so I think that there's

[00:36:22] sort of a I'm now kind of moving away from being a hundred percent data guy to a 92% data guy

[00:36:29] and 8% let's trust our eyeballs a little bit too on some of these things on some of our decisions

[00:36:37] and again and that's not to know not this particular article because again I think data driven

[00:36:41] decisions are essential um I just think there's also some experience in some eyeball tests that

[00:36:49] need to go along with your data driven decisions yeah I think those are good points I love that

[00:36:55] example with the her members yeah we're really see live by the way is he got his little California

[00:37:01] up in San Francisco area as he got run out of Arizona so yeah and he's you know he works for

[00:37:07] his now or web such you're his RESPN so he's got a flight of Connecticut in the football season he

[00:37:12] flies at Connecticut every week back his commute is San Francisco to Connecticut every his crazy

[00:37:18] well that's the story I couldn't imagine yeah anyways look back to the data point here's my

[00:37:24] takeaway on this and and this is ties right into what we do at least mark it and it's really important

[00:37:30] right is it taught me the 10 made a comment to me a number of years ago uh as you know my background

[00:37:37] is in wholesale distribution and manufacturing both I started the distribution in 1989 so it's

[00:37:42] been doing this a while and uh and Tom's been a data guide right computer scientists by education

[00:37:49] and has started an exited multiple software companies and he knows the data field and Tom

[00:37:56] came you know coming to comment number years ago and he said you know I've really never seen

[00:38:00] markets that have the amount of information and data available to them like specifically wholesale

[00:38:06] distributors right and if you think about it from a standpoint of where the data really is always

[00:38:12] described it is you know manufacturer ship stuff in in boxes and pallets and truck loads

[00:38:18] distributor breaks that pallet truck load pallet or box down to ones and uh or boxes of something

[00:38:24] and gets it to the end user right so a lot more invoices that the lot more invoices data

[00:38:31] at a distributor than a manufacturer lot more touch points data of lots of other customers right

[00:38:38] distributor has hundreds and thousands of customers you know or hundreds and or thousands of

[00:38:43] customers in a manufacturer typically has hundreds in that case so but if you look at the distributor

[00:38:50] immense amounts of data on top of the fact that you know use the the reference point earlier

[00:38:56] Scott to restaurants right you don't find that many multi-generational restaurants

[00:39:03] when you get to your new wholesale distributors right right and you sure do find a whole lot of

[00:39:09] multi-branch wholesale distributors that have data across large pieces of geography the challenges

[00:39:17] and it's part of what's going on through this article is that historically this data is all

[00:39:22] siloed within an organization right we got warehouseing data here we've got invoice data here

[00:39:28] we've got e-commerce data here we've got hundreds whatever numbers of spreadsheets all over the

[00:39:33] organization and the issue is getting that data back together that becomes challenging one of the

[00:39:39] great things that that I really appreciated about this within this article is they talked about

[00:39:46] really finding a way to help the customer right with the data that they have available help

[00:39:52] a customer understand their business even better and and I try not to talk too much about

[00:39:59] what we do at Leadsworth but the the term customer intelligence is so broad but how we use that is

[00:40:06] we use it internally we have a total of all the revenue expander right within our software

[00:40:12] where a distributor can look and say here's all my product categories that that customer's buying

[00:40:17] and using an AI tool against that data that says hey Scott you're visiting this customer today

[00:40:24] and they only buy two of your nine categories or 14 categories and in fact they're up in this

[00:40:31] category and down in this category triggers us back to that year point earlier right about what

[00:40:37] my eyes are seeing there's no I know what to talk to these people about and what we find from that

[00:40:42] constantly and I just remember this you know from my days as a manufacturer's rep

[00:40:47] and talking to distributors about buying full line for me was oftentimes the customer doesn't

[00:40:53] even know that they're not buying things for me they might think they're buying this category

[00:40:58] from you but really another buyer over here is buying all of these things so when we can start

[00:41:03] taking that data we can do three things with it we can help our customer better we can help out and

[00:41:11] help them even understand their business better we can help our people understand better how to

[00:41:17] accelerate their time and how they use their time and we get deep insights into our overall business

[00:41:23] but we have to do is bring that data together to make it actionable and that's what I think

[00:41:29] this article really what I love about it is talking about right what are we doing about that

[00:41:34] how are we looking at turn models with customers and what does that mean to our inventory levels

[00:41:40] we're at a tipping point I think in technology right now with the AI tools that are coming

[00:41:46] available as well that we can use with indistribution and manufacturing that's really going to

[00:41:51] change how we use our data agreed dominating further on that you want to go ahead

[00:41:59] let's go ahead all right so we dive right into our segment that we do each week on e-commerce and

[00:42:04] marketing time you had before we started lead smart together you had invested in a digital marketing

[00:42:12] agency as well so it's a little bit about in our e-commerce and marketing segment we're going to

[00:42:16] talk about the false allure of B to B intent data that came from martek magazine I actually sent

[00:42:22] this article off to a friend that's runs marketing for a very very large distributor in the

[00:42:31] you know, Ohio then I knew she would love this I sent this one off this morning so

[00:42:35] tell me what I'll lead us off a little bit on that one yeah well I think we should start off by

[00:42:40] talking about what would we mean by B to B intent data so there's you know and it's got

[00:42:46] of you to see if you're seeing this especially with you know some of the stuff you have coming

[00:42:50] up in your conference in the tech world it got very popular to have tools that we kind of sniff out

[00:42:57] basically what you know people what buyers were doing and to alert use quote unquote that if they

[00:43:06] were in fact you know doing things that showed in high intent actions so you know are they going

[00:43:11] to your pricing page are they watching a demo on your website are they searching for you in Google

[00:43:17] and so forth and looking at review sites or all of those types of things it's gotten very popular

[00:43:22] in the tech world a bunch of high priced tools that go out there and do B to B intent data

[00:43:31] you know quick question for you Scott then I have a couple other comments on this but

[00:43:34] do you see any of this happening in our in the world of manufacturing and distribution

[00:43:40] on the any D site again like the most speaking electrical sure absolutely

[00:43:46] there is no doubt that the investment is there to track you know who's coming what they're doing

[00:43:53] where they're going how they're operating how long it been you know on a site or on a product or

[00:43:59] different and here's a secret so my everything I do is digital I know how many pages are viewed

[00:44:06] in the magazine every month I know how long the average amount of time was spent and each page I know

[00:44:11] what hyper links were clicked and that's not you know if I think that's the the way of the world

[00:44:16] but it's certainly happening amongst our members and their websites and trying to track as much as they can

[00:44:24] yeah and with the article then was saying here right is you know first of all

[00:44:30] is what the first comment that they made in here is that roughly it you know it does a high number

[00:44:35] 5% of of your of any market is looking for what you sell at any given time I think it's actually a

[00:44:41] little bit lower but five you know we see easily between you where from one to three to three and a

[00:44:46] half percent they said 5% in here you know of course out of vary by market in situation

[00:44:51] with your selling but the point that and this is you know we talk a lot about this even with our

[00:44:57] customers but if you're going to solely try and just capture that demand you know basically look

[00:45:04] for somebody to have intent as they said in this article you're probably way late to the game

[00:45:09] right you they've already done research with other options other competitors there's in all of that

[00:45:16] it's just like the right right right so by the time they get to the point where they're

[00:45:20] seriously considering making a purchase if you're not already in that at that party you're

[00:45:25] probably not going to get invited and so we talk a lot with you know about the importance of creating

[00:45:31] that demand earlier in the cycle versus just trying to capture demand looking for intent data

[00:45:38] along the way and then they get and they went one step further and said even with intent data

[00:45:42] there's a lot of false positives and you know the the accuracy is not as great as maybe you'd

[00:45:47] like it to be because let's face it you know buyers don't have an exact process that take

[00:45:52] go down you know one thing doesn't necessarily mean just because I'm on your pricing page doesn't mean

[00:45:57] I'm right about so anyway I thought this was a really good article for anybody using the marketing

[00:46:04] space to really look at and think about you know again the importance of creating demand

[00:46:11] while earlier in the process versus just trying to capture the demand what you're seeing some

[00:46:17] of this intent data that you know you may be tracking. Yeah so Tom are you saying just for clarity

[00:46:24] so I'm going to I'm running a marketing department there should be higher focus on the quality

[00:46:31] of marketing long before you're looking at intent data. Exactly yeah exactly through your thought

[00:46:40] leadership through your you know industry information I mean frankly a lot of I mean look at

[00:46:47] what we're doing here on the ship but we actually get a fair amount of people in our

[00:46:52] leads for prospects for leads part through the show and we're talking about things that have

[00:46:57] nothing or really nothing to do with our technology or looking for intended so it's really how

[00:47:03] do you you know be get awareness start building demand creating demand getting awareness building trust

[00:47:08] higher in the process so that when they get time to make a net decision you're somebody who

[00:47:14] at least is is under consideration. It's got all that a little bit to Tom's saying because I

[00:47:19] really appreciated this article as well and the use I haven't heard the term exactly this way

[00:47:25] before but they use the term consideration set and the research that they talked about here it says

[00:47:30] you know the consideration with somebody comes to buy and you see intent data maybe they're

[00:47:36] looking a lot at your pricing page and so forth they're saying on average they're doing that

[00:47:40] with five other people right so we sometimes think and and this is one of the I think the challenges

[00:47:46] that we have in the distribution world is you know there is in in Ian Heller with the distribution

[00:47:54] strategy group has been on the show a number of times talks about this a lot he said you know

[00:47:59] don't look at your e-commerce data as we got you know 2% of our sales come from our website

[00:48:07] it's not the case at all when you go out and you do individual interviews and and

[00:48:15] it's just listen to an interview that Ian did recently and I'm the senator very appreciative

[00:48:20] of one of the comments he made and I don't want to quote him exact because I know I get it wrong but

[00:48:24] the idea was if you were an executive within a distribution company and you're working on

[00:48:29] e-commerce in your company's working and growing as an executive go call 10 or 20 customers

[00:48:36] and thank them for their recent order and as part of the discussion with the order ask them did

[00:48:42] you do any research on our website by the way right do you do that with other people and now you'll

[00:48:49] start getting a feel for the guy placed the order at the branch but he said yeah you know what

[00:48:54] I found these four items and I researched them on your website now you start to get that whole piece

[00:49:00] of what's going on and to what Thomas talked about earlier about this consideration said is

[00:49:06] it's more than having a website it's more than marketing now we get this whether we you know a

[00:49:11] lead feeder you know these different intent tools and so forth that are out there showing

[00:49:16] people what they're looking at your website that's nice but that's a component of what your sales

[00:49:21] people are doing what you're marketing is doing what your events are doing we pull all of those

[00:49:26] things together now we're having influence on a customer and we know we're going to be in that

[00:49:31] consideration set at a higher level and hopefully get that order so we love this already yeah

[00:49:41] that's good article one of the things they talked about was finding needles and haystacks right

[00:49:45] and you know what you you need to go in there with a magnet right I think this is some good tools

[00:49:52] so let's jump in and talk a little bit about tech cyber and AI and there are upcoming section here

[00:50:01] and there was a little article there about Jenny I and cyber security CEOs concerns a little bit

[00:50:11] of additional survey on that as well so I mean you want to do a city thoughts on that one

[00:50:17] I think it's I mean at least I think that is accurate I think those probably should be the top

[00:50:21] concerns yeah from an IT perspective the two were there is some interrelationship between

[00:50:27] those as well but yeah I mean if you're not thinking about cyber security and in AI and your business

[00:50:33] and how that's going to as it says here deliver and capture value in the next three years I don't

[00:50:37] know what else there would be potentially more important from a technology perspective

[00:50:43] well and you know we're going to see more and more of this every day as we talk about AI this

[00:50:47] talks about the 68% expect generative AI will change the way their company creates delivers and

[00:50:57] captures value in the next three years and obviously there's a huge cyber security issue for that I was

[00:51:03] talking to a customer of ours earlier in the week that's just been dealing with their third party

[00:51:10] e-commerce company that they partner with just went through literally a horrible horrible

[00:51:19] cyber security issue that devastated all of the databases and distributors are having to

[00:51:25] rebuild things that are partnered with them and it just I don't want to talk about it too much

[00:51:29] so I don't know enough about it but I mean there is great risk out there right now we need to be

[00:51:34] balancing all of these things as we go so right kind of next article we'll kind of get

[00:51:40] to just because at time there's a few other things to talk about today but let's get over here

[00:51:44] there's an article that we've shared about there's this discussion right now that Apple and Google

[00:51:51] you know they're stocks both jumped this week on some discussion that Google's Gemini model might be

[00:51:56] being used to to power a lot of what Apple's doing you know I threw this article in for

[00:52:01] conversation they're mostly just because we we can't go into AI blind within our organizations

[00:52:11] we need to have some level of understanding of what's you know what's behind the curtain

[00:52:16] and so this is just kind of a good idea and and this talks about and I remember with the number

[00:52:21] was and it's not relevant but how big it's but the amount of money that Google already pays

[00:52:27] Apple every year to be the search source on your iPhone is astounding the number in the billions

[00:52:34] of what they're already spending so you would think right Google owns the Android

[00:52:39] competing against an iPhone but yet there's so tied together already it'll be interesting

[00:52:44] what Apple chooses to do with with Gemini or what the end of doing on their own at gender

[00:52:50] today I too as well and yesterday the Department of Justice launched the investigation into

[00:52:57] the iPhone being a monopoly can you imagine Apple and Google partnering I mean the investigation

[00:53:04] into right the whole monopoly I don't know what you recall that that stage is just crazy so

[00:53:09] hey just just let me send a picture from my iPhone to my sister who has an Android

[00:53:14] and let the picture go through in the text message and I'll be happy yeah exactly that's that's

[00:53:19] one of the people they will be awesome yeah well and that was one of the things that they

[00:53:23] cited right in that suit was that Apple makes it difficult to you know on group chats with

[00:53:29] people on different devices and sharing images and you know things like that and they're trying

[00:53:34] to try to use that to drive people there and I don't know I think the Department of Justice

[00:53:41] someone and some of this stuff is trying to follow the the the gal that said trying to make a

[00:53:46] name for herself at the FTC so we'll see what happens with that anyways jumping onto our sales

[00:53:52] and M&A section um 10 of industry-gardecale private equity group is taking a spirit the

[00:53:59] cutting in a race of company that's Massachusetts based 144 year old precision tool and

[00:54:07] company that's going going private in a $122 million deal so it's kind of interesting we

[00:54:14] see a whole lot of PE ownership but we don't always and we see a lot of PE movement we

[00:54:19] talk about M&A on the show um in that setting it's usually buying a distributor but now seeing

[00:54:26] publicly traded company going back to privately held as an interesting one so any thoughts on that

[00:54:32] you see that in the electrical world at all and how many of your your manufacturer members or

[00:54:37] publicly traded ballpark of my person oh wow well you know it's it's really sexual and

[00:54:45] that's a tough I don't think I can be an accurate answer that I've become for both

[00:54:49] oh yeah smaller percentage though then then still and then let me or PE on right absolutely absolutely

[00:54:56] good all right well that's a good one thanks I see that Tom some dad

[00:55:01] well push a chop hat yeah so we'll jump into our people and leadership section this is uh

[00:55:06] we added this in January we didn't talk much about this and we had the we called it the legends episode

[00:55:14] we had uh looking at last year and and uh thinking about the coming year we had uh Mike Marks with

[00:55:21] Indian River consulting group and and obviously he's very active with NAD and and dirt beverage

[00:55:30] with the unleash WD and and the We Splimera Cature and the NAM we talked about earlier in

[00:55:35] Hella for Distribution Strategy you're gonna be on the three of them together and you know

[00:55:40] dirt has so much writing and speaking about people and uh when you call it the non-desk

[00:55:46] employee and so forth and you focus is on so much of that on on the tour that he does as well each summer

[00:55:52] but this was uh so we added our section about people and leadership because he mentioned you know

[00:55:57] on the podcast because he guys never talked about people like let's start doing that so we have an article

[00:56:02] here about how to use AI to support employee development and and this came from a uh that's

[00:56:08] called the training magnet it just talks about you know the new or advanced AI technology being able

[00:56:15] to do learning and development programs and really help with employee employee engagement employee

[00:56:21] so any thoughts on that for me to okay I will not criticize another magazine

[00:56:27] that's not fair but we're gonna be awesome if we can just stick our future leaders in

[00:56:32] perfect computer and then X&O that are CEO material I mean are we serious here about using AI

[00:56:38] for leadership development and play development I mean go experience things go to a conference

[00:56:45] go talk to your partners and you go walk through your your warehouse and go talk to people

[00:56:51] go experience things go see what makes people tick that will make you a better leader I don't

[00:56:57] think AI could really you know I could we're talking about this the other day I can make a magazine where

[00:57:03] I just put things into chat GPT that says tell me how the electrical code is going to impact

[00:57:10] uh contractors with less than 150 employees and they'll give me a 2000 words or crank out of

[00:57:17] I just that's an experience go talk to electrical contractors with less than 150 employees

[00:57:24] to find out how it's getting this this story just really kind of boggles my mind and I can

[00:57:29] not believe that we're gonna take leadership development which is a program by the way then

[00:57:34] any of you does shameless plug we're gonna take leadership development just hand that over to AI

[00:57:39] like look we're gonna create geniuses now through a computerized like go experience things go

[00:57:46] touch things go talk to people I just I couldn't believe this hey Scott how do you feel about this

[00:57:51] I'm sorry about this I'm sorry about this yeah yeah well good time no I was going to say

[00:58:01] I agree with you Scott in general I think that there's a there's kind of a middle ground here though

[00:58:07] on some of this could be used and we talk a lot about even like digital twins and the ability

[00:58:12] to use AI to have digital twins to optimize what you know different employees salespeople and all

[00:58:17] that stuff do I think there's data and information that can come from that that can be valuable

[00:58:23] and to play employee development but I agree with you Scott you can't completely automate all of that

[00:58:29] and have it you know basically be a robot there's too many very many variables that you just can't

[00:58:34] you can't put into an AI system yeah now you're you're exactly right Tom and let's just

[00:58:41] part of this the subheading areas a lot AI tools a lot in business to streamline their learning

[00:58:47] and development programs and he uses for assessments to suit their employees so I would I don't

[00:58:53] I can say push back with on your sky because I don't disagree with what you're saying about experience

[00:58:57] because I'm I'm an experienced guy that 100% but I do think we're going to see some AI tools

[00:59:03] that will allow us to enhance and refine what we do from an automated standpoint so to see

[00:59:11] you know my yeah and again as we go back and forth on this my responses should you streamline

[00:59:17] development of your like just do it at the right pace I mean people people think and walk and talk and move

[00:59:23] in different places and I don't know if really streamlining is is the way you want to develop hey

[00:59:30] I know we got it built because a leader we're going to have to do that in the next six weeks like

[00:59:34] easy now I mean let's have a succession plan and let's make sure that you're doing it the right way

[00:59:39] yeah I think this is good you know Tom if you wouldn't mind highlighting that comment from from Kelly there

[00:59:44] keeps says we need to blend old new and AI and experts right that's I think thanks for that

[00:59:51] Kelly that's a great comment right and that's been my view on things all along right is you know

[00:59:56] in Tom mentioned digital twins and co-pilets and so forth and early and and that's the beauty right

[01:00:02] we're not going to get rid of people we're going to make people better and enhance what they're

[01:00:06] doing but I don't ever want to stop going and shake in hands and you know growl and beer with

[01:00:11] people at a trade show and event I mean vast majority of my travel is events so good we need to move on

[01:00:19] there we have an article here from supply house times that meet the 10 most influential women

[01:00:25] in that PECP pipe valve and fitting world and there's some great folks in there so if you

[01:00:32] if you don't get our newsletter and I forgot to mention it's fully enough you would their Tom

[01:00:36] go back a little bit Tom tries to sometimes move me ahead when he's ready to move forward and he's

[01:00:42] done on a topic by by moving the slider to the next article I'm not biting on this one

[01:00:49] there's some great great ladies that are that are I mentioned in this article that are really

[01:00:54] doing some powerful stuff within the organizations both from an executive leadership and a marketing

[01:01:00] and a sales side of things so what I didn't mention earlier in the show that I normally do

[01:01:05] about halfway through is we're here every Friday I'm Kevin Brown here with Tom Burton we have

[01:01:10] a guest most weeks Scott's with us today from an AD and we publish a newsletter called around

[01:01:18] the Horn and Hole Cell Distribution Manufacturing it goes out every Friday morning to

[01:01:23] thousands and thousands of people if you do not get that newsletter you can simply ask us for it

[01:01:28] at hello at leatsmartek.com or go to the website for the podcast which is www.aroundthehornpod.com

[01:01:37] reason I interject that usually throughout the show is if you're listening on the podcast and not

[01:01:42] seeing what we're looking at is we're looking at a newsletter on our screen we're talking about

[01:01:49] these articles so again this was from us at Playhouse Times magazine if you don't subscribe to

[01:01:56] that it's a good one if you're anywhere related to plumbing heating, quite valve fitting arena

[01:02:03] a great one but there's some good folks in that it's international women's month and so good

[01:02:08] time for that one so some good folks in there Tom will hit the industry scout about really quick

[01:02:13] we've got I know Paul Kennedy was with us this morning I think Joe Solide quite a few people from

[01:02:19] I Dakota Supply Group they've unveiled their inspirational rebranding and and I

[01:02:26] I just I think they handled this so well yeah I'm not saying this because Paul's been on the show

[01:02:33] and stuff and fall up is chief digital officer and I got Spencer time together at an 80 event

[01:02:39] recently and they're just good people there but I just thought they handled this and Scott

[01:02:44] I'm really interested in your feedback. I just thought they handled this whole rebranding

[01:02:48] of amazingly professional right Joe just commented we are DSG I went to the DSG 125th Anniversary

[01:03:02] Party in Denver. This might invite to that they invited every single employee

[01:03:09] that he's probably branched and some of the folks who were there had never been

[01:03:13] doing airport before ever in their life that's in slew to Denver for this incredible

[01:03:18] I mean if you want to talk about we are DSG and if you want to talk about people who care about

[01:03:26] each other I was just I was again my job stand on the outside and observe and so people who

[01:03:33] talked on the phone to each other for their careers you know or sent emails to each other but never

[01:03:38] met each other met each other for the first time when they were in Denver and we're genuinely

[01:03:43] excited stand they're watching genuinely excited to meet each other and talk to each other and see

[01:03:47] each other in person and just talk for extended period of time about family and life and

[01:03:53] that was just so impressed with this company and what it is that they do and how they do it

[01:03:59] from the bottom up for like about I mean they're an esoph so everybody's an owner

[01:04:04] it's right everybody has an equal stake in the game and everybody cares about each other so

[01:04:11] just deeply you know what I mean and it was just so just an incredible thing and the way

[01:04:17] they will this out is an absolute near image of who they are and what they do that's not

[01:04:24] a great job how they capture it yeah we know it's interesting to watch about that and I don't

[01:04:30] sorry to the DSG folks that are with us but it's not that I mean to turn this today into a DSG

[01:04:35] commercial but you know what esophs I've been so advisory work in a few years ago to any

[01:04:44] with any sapin not every esoph is employee you know own company is is the same right

[01:04:52] and you can see that within their organization from the very top all the way through and what I

[01:04:58] you know congrats to Joe Solheim that's here with us today he came from a large public

[01:05:04] betrayed a faster distribuator ship over so you watched this expansion and with the reason I'm talking

[01:05:09] about this is more of other smaller in mid-size you know distributors right in other parts of the

[01:05:16] country can kind of take a look at some of the some of the path that DSG has taken recently and

[01:05:21] get some good feedback on some things to do in there it is same as congratulations to everybody there

[01:05:27] thanks for their support of our show as well injuries international put a new big distribution

[01:05:33] deal together with a pen engineering some good friends over at andries as well so congratulations to them

[01:05:40] order states shocker another acquisition but that's a solid one there as well so anyways

[01:05:48] the last thing we'll cover in every week in the news letter we have the last pieces we call it a good

[01:05:53] read it's called that this week's article is what is a chief AI officer look like in the marketing world and

[01:06:01] the we're seeing more and more of this right whether it's a chief digital office or just mentioned

[01:06:08] that a DSG hired last year at a chief digital officer AI officers and we talked about this a little

[01:06:15] bit last week I've been asked this question a couple times recently what I'm seeing is maybe it's not

[01:06:21] a sea level person but we're starting to get more with an organization's folks that are being

[01:06:28] either promoted within and learning about AI and digital and the the seriousness of this as you

[01:06:37] can really see a changing the the marriage I think between our stories here is starting to become

[01:06:45] more clear to me about again hiring a chief AI officer a chief digital officer chief data officer

[01:06:52] and and mergers and acquisitions we have to accept that you know there's a level of

[01:07:01] distributor that's saying how much do I need to invest in these positions and these

[01:07:08] technologies to to remain in business in 2030 and the idea there are part of it is

[01:07:17] again like you know Wednesday's son of fire acquired to uh electrical distributors in Michigan and

[01:07:24] weaker so ago gray by our acquired a parish hair distributor in Texas and and we have to accept that

[01:07:31] those companies spend you know I'm making up the numbers I really don't know what it is

[01:07:36] $100 million on digital technology which comes down to about 1% of their total revenue

[01:07:45] and and you're laughing yeah what's that we're doing nothing I know and then there's companies like

[01:07:50] but here's my point and then there's companies like you know that are around the size of Dominion

[01:07:56] who might only be able to spend $5 million on digital technology but that's 10% of their total

[01:08:03] so they're yeah there's spending exponentially less dollars but the percentage is so much higher

[01:08:09] that it makes it difficult to say how much I'm willing to spend on these AI officers before

[01:08:14] it impacts the bottom line much more significantly than these big guys right good

[01:08:21] all right Tom any thoughts on that before we wind down I agree with Scott I think what

[01:08:26] you're just saying is that's gonna continue to drive the M&A trend right like you got to get bigger

[01:08:31] to compete and it's gonna be hard for I think a little guy to really you know be

[01:08:36] hiring chief AI officers and all of that stuff and make it affordable you know those are not

[01:08:42] inexpensive positions and but they have started the digital center of excellence all you

[01:08:48] NAD members. We're trying to help you navigate the digital future so very again

[01:08:57] shameless plug but good plug because it is about the future so get in touch with NAD if you're interested

[01:09:03] in the digital center of excellence we've really invested big time in that. Okay and we're

[01:09:07] going to continue to talk about these things here every week as we continue to move forward

[01:09:14] in fact you got to get things organized Tom for our what are we going to do for our hundred

[01:09:18] episode coming up later this year we're gonna have to figure that out so we'll get get that roll

[01:09:24] in the gather but we're gonna wind down for the day today Scott thanks for being with us sure appreciate

[01:09:29] your time and energy that you put in for us my pleasure my honor I appreciate and congrats

[01:09:34] on coming up on 100 episodes you know you don't you don't you don't get to 100 without being good

[01:09:39] of what you do so yeah we're trying to do some right thanks yeah good comedy closing thoughts

[01:09:45] no I my Kentucky is was one of my finals players and some my brackets already busted so

[01:09:53] I've got Arizona left but I don't know where I pick Kansas I have to go look most picked them the

[01:10:00] loose so shame on all of you pick him to win all the way no I picked them to win again tomorrow

[01:10:06] but then they're gonna run into Purdue and who knows what's going to happen okay so not

[01:10:12] not the highest level of confidence just an early level of confidence seeing Kansas play basketball

[01:10:17] last what they're so it hasn't been pretty I got to tell you very good all right well listen Kevin Brown here again

[01:10:24] Tom Burton Scott cast that we think everybody that's been with us today whether you're

[01:10:29] listening on the podcast later in the recording for your with us live today and those of you

[01:10:34] who made comments were greatly appreciative of that as we are each and every week so we will

[01:10:40] wish you a wonderful weekend enjoy yourself be kind be safe and do good things thanks everyone

[01:10:47] how are we going to we can we hope you enjoyed today's episode and our guests each week we try

[01:10:57] our best to dig into the topics that are impacting your business so please reach out to us and let us

[01:11:03] know how you think we can make the show better or topics you'd like for us to tackle or talk

[01:11:07] about more often and even guests you'd like to see join us we're looking forward to bringing you

[01:11:12] next week's session and hope that until then you stay safe stay focused and do great things

[01:11:19] if you haven't already please subscribe to the podcast and leave a review to help others in

[01:11:24] wholesale distribution get access to the conversation and finally please check out our sponsor

[01:11:30] leads smart technologies and their manufacturing and wholesale distribution industry CRM customer

[01:11:36] intelligence and channel collaboration platform that's leads smart technologies at lead smart tech.com