Recently, I interviewed the CEO of a distribution-based co-operative group. This gentleman is a longtime veteran of the distribution industry and has spent the last 20-plus years working to improve the relationships between his member distributors and their preferred suppliers.

In 1920, a master plumber by the name of Harry Chernick recognized a need and an opportunity to serve his community in the City of Detroit.

The association of leading independent HVAC commercial contractors encourages members to share best practices and learn about new technology that can help save time and money within their organizations.

Regardless of whether you are a sole owner, partner or employee of the business that pays you for your labors, your attitude is vital to your future.

Today, the only selling point is an exceptional, over-the-top customer experience executed with empathy, respect and honesty.

If we want our people to perform at a high level, we must show others how to remove obstacles. We must give our people the latitude to make operational decisions. We must make the goal, not the path, the most important principle in our success.

Being busy in a successful operation is quite different from being busy due to days of screw-ups and fire drills. There still seem to be some wholesalers who are surprised and feel the need to celebrate when they can ship a standard stock order — complete, without errors and delivered as promised.

Jen Schmitt, newly named president of Schmitt ProfiTools Inc.

Make a New Year’s resolution to understand the amount of money you must charge for the services you provide to the public to recover the costs you incur providing those services. The right price also allows you to earn the profit you deserve for delivering excellence through those services. 

There is no getting around it; every once in a while, we all get in a rut. The main reason it happens is because of routine, with people moving through most of their days on autopilot.