A friend, and now retired client once told me that after his 40 years in contractor-based distribution, he noticed most distributors herd cats when it comes to profitability.

Taking Rocky’s lead, I am inventing a field of business philosophy called “Transaction Thinking.” 

Coming out of 2010, the second decade of the New Millennium looks poised for growth, albeit at a tepid rate.

Way back in 2004, long before the over-hype of the real estate market reached the famed fevered pitch, we conducted a review of productivity in distribution markets.

For most of its 100-year+ history, distributors have driven the profit in their firms by metrics and comparisons from the income statement.

There are two basic types of employees inside most firms: internal and external.

It should be plain by now that the downturn that started two years ago is far more than a typical recession.

In his recent book, Profit Myths in Wholesale Distribution, Al Bates lauds gross margin dollars as one of the most important numbers and concepts in running a profitable wholesale company.

Many years ago, I worked in a sizable family-owned distributorship. My goal was to gain experience in helping the company go to market using modern principles of sales and marketing.

The definitions of Wholesaler and Manufacturer have, in the minds of most industry veterans, distinct meaning. Manufacturers turn raw material into products and wholesalers take title to the products while