Tag Archives: 4Q 2015

By Dr. Albert D. Bates, President, Profit Planning Group Most distributors continue to lament the pervasive, and possibly increasing, pressures on gross margin percentages. Seemingly, price is outweighing almost every other factor in the competitive arsenal. At the same time, gross margin is one of the “big two” in increasing profits for distributors (the other being operating expenses). This creates ...

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Three realities in Today’s Industry By Ben Rudman Despite the maturity of the material handling industry, OEMs have continued to find ways to grow and improve margins and—increasingly—that’s been through mergers and acquisitions. In today’s market, it can be tough for manufacturers to stand out. Game-changing technologies aren’t introduced on a regular basis, and differentiating features are often quickly copied ...

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Keeping your company prepared for an inflationary environment By Steve Guglielmo and Mike Vaughan “The industry may be facing an inflationary environment within the next 3-5 years and members need to understand and be prepared to operate their businesses during these conditions.” – MHEDA 2015 Critical Impact Factor Number 12 The past four years have been a renaissance for MHEDA ...

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By Steve Guglielmo Designing an internship that mutually benefits the student and the company

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MHEDA’s Learning Management System educates employees and tracks their learning progress By Steve Guglielmo MHEDA is constantly striving to improve our offerings to members. To do this, we rely on member feedback to surveys and questionnaires about what is working and what could be better. Consistently, member companies have told us that our industry-specific educational offerings are one of the ...

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Should we just give up? By Beth Ziesenis, Your Nerdy Best Friend Perhaps it’s because technology glitches have kicked my butt this week, but today I’m very worried about the future of technology… more specifically the future of privacy and security. Well, “worried” isn’t all of it. I’m angry. And scared. And fed up. For every amazing tool that comes ...

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By Brian Bluff Over the past 18 months we have audited the online marketing efforts of over 175 distributors and manufacturers. For the most part, these companies are in the same boat – digital marketing has become more difficult than a single person or skill set can handle and the company doesn’t have a plan. The aim of this article ...

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By Steve Guglielmo MHEDA dealers and suppliers work together to solve the customer's issue

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Title: Sales Engineer Company: EnerSys Location: Kansas City, MO Years on Job: 1.5 One of the things that I love about this job is that the only way to improve is by doing. I played sports all the way through high school and college and my last job prior to starting with EnerSys was actually as a Quarterbacks Coach and ...

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AK Material Handling’s embrace of positivity in the work place shapes its company culture By Steve Guglielmo It’s no coincidence that Minnesota Business Magazine named AK Material Handling Systems (Maple Grove, MN) its “Ultimate Fun Office” in its 2014 100 Best Companies to Work for Awards. It’s actually by design. “We’ve built a culture here that is very addictive,” says ...

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