Transforming the Industry
Mar 18, 2019
By Rick McCarten
If all goes well, this year’s EFC Conference could have a profound impact on our industry.
The conference will feature a “workshop” where delegates will be asked to determine the path our industry into the 21st century. You should plan to be there and participate.
Why a workshop?
To understand, let’s take a step back a few years. In 2002, we did a study on the electrical industry with Frank Lynn & Associates. The study looked at industrial customers, but it found that as an industry we had a very mixed brand identity.
Some customers saw the manufacturer’s brand as the key decision maker; others choose the distributor’s brand as being the determent factor. The observation was made that no one segment of the channel has the power to control the channel.
Examples of channel control where the manufacturer has control would be the auto industry. The car manufacturers determine the channel over the car dealerships. In office supply or groceries, the reverse is true, retailers control the customers and dictate terms to the office and food providers. In both cases the power goes to the company with the best brand recognition. The food retailers can institute rules and regulations to the industry and create standards.
Conversely, if a channel does not have a dominant segment, it has a tougher time making change. Our industry is like that, some dominance on both sides balances power. The result is no one segment has the control of transformation. Any movement forward can easily take one step forward and two steps back. It is the old chicken and egg.
So, to move forward to improve our channel, we need to build consensus and there is no better place to do that than at the EFC conference, where all the leaders get together under one roof for three days, where we can have a general discussion, hear from all parties and vote on how best to move forward.
A very key area for our industry to move forward on is digitalization. Last year’s research pointed out the gaps we needed to fill to remain competitive.
The Supply Chain Steering Committee will be hosting a workshop on the Thursday of the conference. Delegates will hear the results of a new survey on our e-commerce abilities. They will be asked to electronically vote on key initiatives, build consensus and push us into the digital age.
It’s time we took the top 200 manufacturers and allowed a distributor to talk to them in a consistent way.
Its time we took the top 50 distributors and made it so that manufacturers and reps could talk in the same way as well.
Rick McCarten is VP, Operations, Electro-Federation Canada.
