Filtered by author: Meredith Schuetze Clear Filter

EEOC Extends Deadline for Filing Compensation Data

A NAW Legal Advisory:

As we first reported in a Legal Advisory in April, the EEOC was ordered by a DC District court to begin collecting compensation data from all covered employers (this data is in addition to the demographic data already required to be filed).  Click here to see NAW’s Legal Advisory.

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Final Overtime Rule Released

A NAW Legal Advisory:

After several years of rulemaking, and successful legal challenges by NAW and others which resulted in a second round of rulemaking, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DoL) on Friday published a final rule “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees” – the EAP or so-called “White Collar exemptions” from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements – under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA.).

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New Consumer Data Privacy Law

A NAW legal advisory:

As you may know, the California legislature recently enacted a new and expansive consumer data privacy law.  This new law will require covered businesses to comply with strict requirements on the collection, use and disclosure of “personal information” on California residents.  The law was enacted in late June and will take effect on January 1, 2020.

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The Key to Defensibility in the Digital Age

From the NAW Blog:

The problem with most new technologies is that they quickly become obsolete. This is frustrating for distributors who are always trying to keep up with the newest thing. But AI should be viewed differently. Unlike other developments, it won’t be swept away by accelerating waves of innovation. AI does not merely endure: it adapts and becomes better over time. Using AI is an investment in the future, and one to make today.

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How to Unlock Profitable Growth in Today’s Market

From the NAW Blog:

For many distributors, growth has been stagnant. The question is – why?

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EFC International Launches Power BI, Linked to SAP and CRM

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. September 12, 2019 - Engineered fastener and components distributor, EFC International, continues to “Redefine the World of Distribution”, exhibited in part by the company’s recent implementation of Power BI (from Microsoft). Power BI is linked to their internal SAP operating system and CRM software.

EFC has been at the leading edge of the industrial distribution industry, embracing and implementing advanced innovative technology and digital transformation. Matt Dudenhoeffer, CEO, stated “EFC’s implementation of Power BI provides our team with a powerful business analytics tool that delivers real-time interactive dashboards customized to our business strategy and performance metrics. Our SAP and CRM systems are incredibly versatile in enabling customized reports for our suppliers and customers, and now we can take that a step further with interactive visualizations through a simple interface.”

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AI Makes Customer Service Profitable and Here Is How

From the NAW Blog:

Customer service is a big cost center for distributors. It doesn’t have to be. Customer service (CS) reps speak with buyers and decision makers every day. Each conversation is a sales opportunity, but one that CS reps aren’t equipped to take advantage of. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can change this by empowering customer service to make orders, instead of just taking them.

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EFC International Swing Couplings -- Improve Your Production Costs

EFC International provides safe and high quality swing couplings for hydraulic, pneumatic, vacuum, gas, chemical fluid and water applications. The swing couplings are manufactured with the latest technologies to provide production methods that achieve efficiency, increase plant safety, improve productivity and save costs for industrial connections.

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How to Boost Sales Online with AI

From the NAW Blog:

Over the past few years B2B distributors have learned from successful B2C companies and embraced online sales. Today, distributors must do so again and further update their e-commerce platforms. AI-driven personalization will help distributors sell more across all their online sales channels.

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Are You Hiring the “Right” People?

From the NAW Blog:

In today’s fast-changing workplace, many distributors struggle to find the right talent with the right skills. Even with a well-designed hiring system in place, distributors may still experience a high rate of failure in getting the right people on board. Why is this the case? What are the roadblocks?

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Winning with Artificial Intelligence Requires the Right Knowledge

From the NAW blog:

In my research for Innovate to Dominate: The 12th Edition in the Facing the Forces of Change® Series, which is coming to you in November, many of my conversations with distributors were about one of the hottest forces of change — artificial intelligence. Often, distribution leaders talked about artificial intelligence as a software solution that distributors might implement as a best practice for improving profits or sales productivity. For example, distributors may implement pricing tools enabled by artificial intelligence to achieve smart pricing to optimize profits or to suggest products as sales priorities to improve account productivity.

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The Wayfair Decision – Heightened Risk of Successor Liability in Asset Transactions

The recent Supreme Court Decision - South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., – has dramatically impacted online retailers and increased possible successor liability risks in terms of Merger and Acquisition (M&A) transactions. Prior to the Wayfair ruling, the “physical presence” standard set out in Bellas Hess and Quill controlled online retailers’ necessity to pay South Dakota sales tax. National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Ill., 386 U.S. 753 (1967) and Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298 (1992). The Physical Presence rule allowed out of state retailers who sell their products or services online to avoid the states sales and use taxes due to a lack of actual, physical presence of the business in the state. However, under the South Dakota Statute affirmed by the Supreme Court, online retailers are now required to pay South Dakota sales tax if their business has a “substantial nexus” with the state. South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 138 S. Ct. 2080, 2099 (2018). This is reached when the retailer has sold over $100,000 in in-state sales or completed over 200 transactions in the state on an annual basis. Id. at 2084.

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What Is AI?

From the NAW Blog:

Businesses succeed by using AI in many ways. Whether that is Amazon growing revenue with personalized product pitches, or UPS routing drivers efficiently to minimize costs, the bottom line is that AI gives users a competitive advantage. My previous post explains why distributors are primed to benefit from AI. In this post I’ll go further to explain what this technology really is, how it works and how distributors can start tapping into its benefits.

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Urgent Conflict Minerals Update

From Elm Sustainability Partners:

In our efforts to keep you updated on developments concerning conflict minerals, we send you this short note.

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Listen Up If You Want to Beat Amazon

From the NAW blog:

Most distributors think they know their customers, until they actually talk to those customers. That is because wholesaler-distributors often operate in an echo chamber, talking to their sales team, but not to their customers.

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How AI Will Impact Distribution

From the NAW Blog:

Companies like Amazon and Netflix have used cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to drive growth and disrupt business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. Business-to-business (B2B) distributors have been slow to adapt this technology, however. This will soon change. B2B distributors that leverage the power of AI technology have the potential to turbocharge revenue and disrupt their own markets. Those that fail to do so will risk getting left behind.

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Rotor Clip: Celebrating 10 Years of Wave Springs with one TINY announcement

We're celebrating 10 years of manufacturing the world's best Wave Springs this summer with one TINY announcement!
Rotor Clip's proud to announce that we are able to produce wave springs as small as 3mm O.D.!

(That's .118 inches)

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Can You Innovate If Your Employees Don’t Believe You Can?

From the NAW Blog:

A recent article in MIT Sloan Management Review, “Grow Faster by Changing Your Innovation Narrative,” provides essential insights for distributors around culture and innovation, starting with an insightful definition. Innovation narratives are what a company’s employees believe about a company’s ability to innovate. It turns out that four levers are most often used by innovation leaders to drive growth and stay ahead of competitors. We share the four levers below, followed by insights from our ongoing Facing the Forces of Change research. Our goal is to provide insights to help distributors get started on improving their innovation narrative, and the entire article is an essential read for developing fully actionable plans.

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Amazon Faces Liability for a Third-Party Vendor’s Defective Product

On Wednesday, July 17th, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Amazon can be held liable for defective goods sold on its site by third-party vendors. This decision could be significant for Amazon which continues to face criticism for counterfeits and dangerous items being sold through its platform. Amazon argues that it does not count as a "seller" because it simply provides the platform, but the appeals court said it disagrees. The court’s opinion states that Amazon may be liable in part because its business model “enables third-party vendors to conceal themselves from the customer, leaving customers injured by defective products with no direct recourse to the third-party vendor.”

Previously, two federal appeals courts have ruled that Amazon cannot be held liable for products from third-party sellers, but the federal appeals court decision on Wednesday reversed the latest lower court decision. The case will now be sent back to the federal district court for trial.

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Risk – Shiny Shiny Pretty Pretty

From Elm Sustainability Partners:

Of all the shiny new objects in ESG/sustainability, “risk” is the shiniest and newest.  ESG is seen as risk management, implying that ESG is more downside than upside (I’ll come back to that).  But here is a big problem with linking ESG to risk: most ESG professionals don’t really understand risk management. 

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