The disruptive challenges confronting wholesaler-distributors won’t be solved and the transformative opportunities in front of distributors won’t be seized by simply talking to, studying and hanging out only with other wholesaler-distributors. As Steve Jobs once said: “It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best that humans have done. And then try to bring those things in to what you are doing.”

Want to create a culture of innovation within your business?  Then commit to exposing your team to critical thought from unconventional resources.

Innovative distributors who are preparing for the future will augment the needed industry-specific information with other non-traditional opportunities. We need to, as Steve Jobs said, expose ourselves to the best that humans have done – and that comes from a variety of sources.

More than 85% of distributors surveyed for recent research agree that there is an imperative “to reinvent our business before someone else does.” Reinvention requires new perspectives, which requires that we consciously Lift and Shift™ ideas from outside of distribution into our businesses.