Healthcare Supply Chain Technology and Strategy

Ace Hardware Corp., a 90-year-old co-op that oversees nearly 5,000 locally owned hardware stores, never would be mistaken for trendy. But its recent growth proves that everything old eventually becomes fashionable again. “We are a service-based, high-touch, local business,” says John Venhuizen, CEO of the Oak Brook-based chain. “The shop-local trend is one that has served us well.” Does this sound familiar to you? You might be a "service-based, high-touch, local business" as well.  Ace always has focused on modest stores. Its average footprint is about 8,000 square feet, a mere couple of aisles in a typical 100,000-square-foot Home Depot. Lower overhead helped propel Ace to record profit and sales . Net income increased almost 28 percent to $104.5 million as revenue rose 8 percent to $4.15 billion. But while small may be beautiful, it's still small. For perspective, Home Depot Inc. rings up more every three weeks, on average, than Ace does in an entire year. Mr. Venhuizen...

using Customers to generate REFERRALS How can you generate more referral business? This is not really about the death of a salesman, but in some ways the traditional sales methods are changing and while salesman are still needed, You still still need to look at other methods to build that sales funnel.  Referrals are becoming a primary mechanism for how we make decisions. A  2012 Nielsen study  found that 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth or recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. A  Texas Tech study  found that 83% of consumers are willing to refer after a positive experience—yet only 29% actually do. How can you take advantage of the opportunity to close that gap? How do you get a referral engine going? 1. Get connected. Find a way to get and stay connected with people you meet. People who are interested in your work, people who you’re interested in, people you can help — they’re all valuable relationships and it’s neve...

It's a balancing act, focusing on smaller orders with higher profits while keeping your larger customers happy. "When you look at the speed of change and the level of uncertainty, specifically when you look at things like omnichannel and e-commerce, growth rates are hard to predict. "  That overwhelming emphasis on speed, though, means that fast and accurate communication between you and your customer is crucial. Google, Amazon and others are delivering in under an hour, but they are getting paid more for the products and services they provide. This added profit cones either in the form of a subscription service like Amazon Prime  or just higher prices on items with smaller delivery windows.  "As omnichannel becomes more prevalent, that's driving a lot of pressure in the DC/warehouse  environment. A lot of distribution networks can handle delivery for B2B and classic commerce. But there are many companies who don't have the internal expertise or right infrast...