Agenda

Be ready to engage with peers and session leaders in a series of presentations, round tables, panel discussions and plenty of networking time. The MDM Pricing and Profitability Summit 2019 will help you extract actionable results from current analytics, and give you a pragmatic approach to build an advanced analytics program to guide your company's future. 

Monday, April 15

Noon – 8:00 PM	Registration
1:30 PM – 5:30 PM	Workshop: Strategic Purchasing that Drives Profits (separate registration required)    This four-hour workshop, led by distribution purchasing executive Brad Johnson, maps best practices and methodologies to optimize the “front end” of distribution operations. Brad will provide a framework for organizing your strategic purchasing activities and help you understand how to get started so you can get immediate gains. Additionally, Brad will lay out a blueprint for building longer-term capabilities that enable you to achieve sustainable purchasing advantages vs. competitors. The structure of this workshop will focus on these four core activities to position your organization to achieve significant cost advantages in the long term: * Category/Product Management * Supplier Selection and Management (including Sourcing) * Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning (SIOP)/Inventory Management * Procurement Our roundtable format will include a mix of presentations, roundtable exercises and networking opportunity to learn from other distributors on what’s working and what’s not. While many distributors invest in systems and training to improve margins by selling at higher prices, most do not build world-class purchasing organizations to ensure they’re buying at the lowest-possible costs. Yet this is an area of enormous opportunity for distributors. There are many ways of buying at lower total prices and – unlike customer price increases – these methods allow distributors to grow market share more easily while preserving or enhancing gross margins. In this workshop, distribution purchasing executive, Brad Johnson, will explain each area of opportunity in detail and give you the information you need to get immediate gains – and position your organization to achieve significant cost advantages in the long term. Here's a PDF of the workshop agenda to share with your team members or to make a case for your travel budget.  ​Download PDF ​To learn more about the workshop
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM	​Welcome Reception Meet the speakers and attendees.

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Tuesday, April 16

6:30 AM – 9:00 AM	Registration
6:45 AM – 7:30 AM	Attendee Breakfast Welcoming Breakfast Buffet – start meeting and make new connections right away.  Join a fellow attendee at breakfast and make new acquaintances.​
7:45 AM – 7:55 AM	​​MDM Opening Welcome Tom Gale
7:55 AM – 8:00 AM	Sponsor Spotlight - Zilliant
​8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Session 1	New Distribution Profit Models: How to Win in an Age of Revolutionary Change John Wass, CEO, Profit Isle                                                                              A revolution is now sweeping through the distribution industry: a revolution which is as pervasive and powerful as those that swept through – and are still transforming – retail, telecommunications and healthcare. In those industries, many of the major players, which had been household names for years, disappeared through bankruptcy or takeover. But a number of the major – and formerly minor – players, along with a smaller number of new entrants, managed to craft strategies that enabled them to transform and reposition into industry dominance. In our experience across a range of industries, these successful companies have achieved sustained 10% to 30% year-on-year profit growth, and long-term industry strategic leadership.
​9:00 AM – 9:05 AM	​Sponsor Spotlight - Dimensional Insight
9:05 AM - 10:00 AM Session 2	​Strategic Profitability: How New Analytics Are Producing Super-Profitable Companies  Randy MacLean, President, WayPoint Analytics     A new breed of analytics is producing a new breed of super-profit companies that are dominating their markets, and setting both growth and profit records.  In this session, Randy will explain the market dynamics that these companies exploit to produce record cash-flow and growth, and the new analytics that can open the door for any company to join the top tier.  With the right information, you can better serve and retain top accounts, know the right price for every account and deal, upgrade your account base, and take the best business from your competition. You’ll also learn how to avoid being on the wrong side of strategies designed to take away your profits.  This top-rated session will leave you with a long list of ideas and action items you’ll be anxious to get started on.
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM	Networking Break – Sponsor Showcase                                            ​
10:30 AM - 10:35 AM	Sponsor Highlight
10:35 AM - 11:30 AM ​Session 3	Case Study: Air Hydro Power’s Profitability Journey Matt Ott, Co-owner of Air Hydro Power, Louisville, KY Air Hydro Power implemented a pricing program more than 10 years ago that has fueled the growth and success of this 200-employee regional fluid power, automation and industrial supplies distributor, now with 14 locations. Co-owner Matt Ott will share the challenges and incremental steps that ultimately built AHP into a top-performing company, and how its profitability journey has been critical to its success – in talent development, customer service, market expansion and bottom-line profitability. Headquartered in Louisville, KY, Air Hydro Power, Inc. is an industrial distributor serving Kentucky, Southern Indiana, West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi specializing in hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical automation, and hose and fittings for over 57 years. AHP now has fourteen locations totaling over 200 employees including product specialists and a technical engineering staff. A full-line Parker Hannifin distributor, AHP has been a Best Places to Work in Kentucky for the last 10 years.
11:30 AM - 11:35 AM	Sponsor Spotlight - PROS
11:35 AM - 12:30 PM	Attendee Lunch
​12:30 PM – 12:35 PM	​Sponsor Spotlight - VersaPay
12:35 PM – 1:35 PM Session 4	New Paradigms for Pricing Efficiency & Profitability D. Bruce Merrifield. Jr. Distributors have long focused on margin percentage as the guiding light – buy low, sell high. That model is broken as Amazon and other disruptive forces increasingly pick apart the traditional distribution profitability equation. Leveraging his deep history of distribution company turnaround and growth, Bruce will map out the new playbook to innovate your selling, service, cost and fulfillment models and to unbundle and re-bundle your value proposition through a new set of profitability metrics.
1:35 PM – 1:40 PM	Sponsor Spotlight - epaCUBE
1:40 PM - 2:40 PM  Session 5	Value Is a Fundamental Profit Driver Jonathan Bein, Ph.D.                                                                                  Distributors that understand value are more profitable – they focus on the right activities and customers. Companies that don’t define and communicate value tend to under- or over-price, or spend time on unprofitable customers. In an age of globalization, the Internet and commoditization, the need to deliver differentiated value is essential. Jonathan will share best practices to drive profitability by defining, creating, measuring and communicating value to customers, employees and suppliers.
2:40 PM - 3:15 PM	Networking Break – Sponsor Showcase
​3:15 PM – 3:20 PM	Sponsor Spotlight - WayPoint Analytics
​3:20 PM – 4:15 PM Session 6	Driving Profitability with Strategic Purchasing Brad Johnson, President Building Products Distribution - Supply Chain Analytics (BPD-SCA) Driving Profitability with Strategic Purchasing Many distributors have widely-decentralized purchasing, little control over buying practices and very little data to leverage strategically to improve costs and terms with suppliers. In this session, long-time distribution executive Brad Johnson will present a framework for implementing strategic purchasing practices that will help you: Construct your product mix (e.g., SKU assortment based) on customer and competitive analysis in collaboration with other functions Leverage your purchasing power by consolidating suppliers and centralizing your buying processes Utilize category/supplier line reviews that can lower your overall costs while driving better sales growth Negotiate strategic purchasing agreements (SPAs) that reduce purchase price and get maximum levels of rebates, marketing co-op, freight cost reductions and other profit improvements Develop promotions with your suppliers that provide discounts vs. competitors while preserving your margins Manage both cost increases and decreases effectively by taking less and getting more than the market Understand opportunities to develop a high-profit private label program Gain access to supplier resources such as training, tech support, marketing support and more creating a competitive advantage  For many distributors, the starting point for this work is the establishment of a Category Management function. While nearly all sizable retailers utilize a Category Management strategy, most distributors do not. Accelerate your ability to get the benefits of strategic purchasing by learning from an executive who’s done it for three major distribution organizations. ​
​4:15 - 4:20 PM	Sponsor Spotlight - Profit Isle
​4:20 - 5:15 PM Session 7	Speaker Panel: Recap of the Day Tom Gale, Moderator Our final session is a fast-paced opportunity to dive deeper into any of the concepts and discussions throughout the day. A great way to process a full day of content
5:15 - 7:30 PM	Reception & Dinner | Prize Drawing                                          Meet with speakers, sponsors and attendees over dinner, drinks and cap off the evening with the drawings of prizes from MDM and sponsors.  This is a great opportunity to learn from the expertise of the primary service providers, expand your network and discover new friends.
​​7:00 PM – 7:15 PM	Drawing  Passport Card Drawing for sponsor gifts - must be present to win. Gifts include Noise Canceling Headphones, Gift Certificates, etc. ​

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Wednesday, April 17

6:45 AM – 7:20 AM	Attendee Breakfast
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM Session 8	Avoid Mistakes of the Past ​to Stay Profitable in a Sales Downturn Dr. Albert D. Bates                                                                                        With consensus that 2019 will moderate from a record-breaking economic expansion, managing profitability will be more challenging across every distribution sector. Al Bates, dean of distribution financial performance benchmarking, will share more than 30 years of insights gained across all distribution sectors on the key variables and levers distribution executives can adjust most effectively to maximize profitability.
8:30 AM – 9:15 AM Session 9	How to unlock your profitability with the Power of Customer and Pricing Segmentation John Gunderson, Moderator Panelists David Koth - Construction Supply Group - VP of Pricing and Gross Margin Enhancement George Dunham – epaCUBE - CEO This moderated panel discussion presents a case study in profitability improvement, changes in process, and impacts on the bottom line.  Learn how a distributor has used customer segmentation to improve their pricing and profitability while still driving top line sales growth.  This interactive session will show you potential programs that can help improve your distribution profits.
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM	Networking Break – Sponsor Showcase
9:45 AM – 10:45 AM Session 10	A Distribution Treasure Hunt:  ​Unlock Cash from Your Business Janet Zelenka, former CFO & CIO, Essendant, Inc. Discover the levers that you can use to improve profitability and cash flow. Janet will highlight the key processes where money hides in a distribution business and offer pragmatic suggestions to improve cash generation, walking through some key income statement and balance sheet areas to guide us on our treasure hunt.   Former CFO and CIO for Essendant, a $5-billion distributor of office, janitorial and industrial products, as well as a board member for two large distribution companies, Janet offers a unique and deeply insightful view of how distributors can drive profit improvements.   ​​
10:45 AM – 11:15 AM Session 11	Case Study: Hisco's Pricing & Profitability Journey Bob Dill, President & CEO Hisco, with $310 million in 2018 revenues, is a specialty distribution company serving the electronic assembly, aerospace and defense, medical, electronics, and other industrial markets with 35 stocking locations in North America and the Caribbean. President & CEO Bob Dill will outline the company’s evolution from “every additional GP dollar is a good dollar” to a customer strategic profitability commitment. Bob will share the key metrics and culture change Hisco went through as its internal BI team and external vendors helped transform the company’s understanding of profit drivers.
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM Session 12	Speaker Panel: Conference Recap & Q&A Tom Gale, Moderator  Don’t miss one of the highest rated sessions each year! Our final session is an opportunity to clarify, crosscheck and dive deeper into any of the concepts and discussions surfaced at the conference.  ​
Noon	Departures        ​

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