The MDM Podcast

James Dorn of the Dorn Group joins MDM’s Tom Gale to discuss ‘shoring’ opportunities and strategic implications for distributors. We’re moving from digital defining seamless service to a broader supply-chain transformation that mitigates risk for customers by creating better transparency and deeper engagement.

President & CEO John Mark discusses BlackHawk’s go-to-market strategy, how it differentiates in the markets it serves and its continued aggressive growth strategy. We also discuss the importance of culture and leadership challenges today.

Disruptive market conditions breed opportunity. In this episode, IRCG’s Mike Marks and MDM’s Tom Gale look past the horizon at the larger macrotrends shaping growth opportunities for distributors over the next several years – electrification, infrastructure, energy transition, sustainability and demographic shifts.

The content at PTDA’s Annual Summit in late October went heavy on recruiting and retaining best practices. Editor Mike Hockett chatted with association CEO Ann Arnott to discuss key takeaways from the event, which included the non-traditional methods distributors can leverage to find and keep needed staff in a time when labor is hard to come by.

When markets soften, surprises tend to be of the negative variety. But downturns can also open up opportunities to strengthen key supplier partnerships. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks talk about the key performance indicators in supplier relationships that can be either early warning signals or telltales for competitive opportunity across inventory and cash management, backlogs, support and strategic alignment.

Decades before digital transformation became an imperative, Jay Platt, CEO of Blue Volt and former CEO of Platt Electric, was on a mission to improve how his customers, team members and vendors could access information – whether for training, customer support or building a stronger company culture. He’s still at it.

Beyond tried and true strategies for managing the back side of economic downturns, MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks look at unique and deeper factors the current market outlook is triggering for distributors – inventory exposure and opportunity, scenario planning, resetting sales costs and the underlying longer-term positive trends where near-term opportunity may also exist.

The Crescent Electric Supply leader tells us how employee engagement has kept the distributor pointed at its customer-based north star.

Our team has been on the fall conference tour. MDM’s Tom Gale and IRCG’s Mike Marks compare notes from conversations at Affiliated Distributors, NetPlus, ISSA, MDM’s own SHIFT event, and the latest Baird-MDM quarterly MarketPulse survey. Most distributors report double-digit growth, few signs of slowdown.

In an exclusive interview, Optimas Solutions Co-CEOs Mike Tuffy and Daniel Harms join the MDM Podcast to discuss how their elevation and newly announced roles provide additional stability to the global fasteners manufacturer and distributor.