News and Trends

• Wolseley agrees to joint venture for Stock Building Supply
  Wolseley agreed to dispose of its U.S. Stock Building Supply business through a deal with private-equity Gores Group LLC. Gores Group will take a majority stake of 51% in the struggling division in exchange for Wolseley stock. Wolseley shares rose 8.5% on news of the deal for Stock Building, which has entered bankruptcy proceedings. Fox Business/MarketWatch Pulse (5/6), Building (U.K.) (5/6), Bloomberg (5/6), Industrial Distribution online (5/6)

• Report: PT/MC distributors had sales growth for 2008
  Distributors of power transmission/motion control products grew sales in 2008 despite the rocky economy, according to a report from the Power Transmission Distributors Association. Typical PT/MC distributors posted sales growth of 1.7% and gross margin growth of 3% in 2008. The 2009 PT Distributor Performance Report examined operational statistics from 49 PTDA members in North America. Industrial Distribution online (5/6)

• Diesel prices fell to $2.19 per gallon last week
  Diesel prices dipped to $2.19 per gallon last week after a short run-up in April, according to the Energy Information Administration. The EIA predicts diesel prices will hit $2.27 per gallon this summer. In comparison, diesel prices jumped to $4.37 per gallon last summer. Purchasing.com (5/6)

• Survey: Many companies view RFID as cost-prohibitive
  Less than one-third of companies use RFID technology, according to a recent DC Velocity survey. While 31% of 116 survey respondents reported using RFID, many implemented RFID technology to comply with a customer mandate. Several companies also said RFID still was cost-prohibitive, with 68% of survey respondents saying RFID is not a justifiable expense. DC Velocity magazine (5/2009)

• Other News

• Ingram Micro launches 4 new services for VAR program
  ChannelWeb Network (5/4)

• Moody's cuts Weyerhaeuser debt rating to below investment grade
  Bloomberg (5/6)

• Supervalu appoints former Wal-Mart executive as CEO
  The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (5/7)

• BlueLinx reports first-quarter net loss of $60.7 million as revenue falls 43%
  Reuters (5/6)

• Cardinal Health board approves 14-cent quarterly dividend
  CNBC/The Associated Press (5/6)

Whitepaper: Technology in Distribution: Trends and Future Challenges —Lawson partnered with Dr. Adam Fein to survey North American distribution companies on their technology outlook for 2009. The results are now available in the Technology in Distribution: Trends and Future Challenges whitepaper. Download your copy today!

Best Practices

• Hedge bets, create momentum to weather the storm
  A study of businesses that overcome uncertain times shows that four distinctive practices emerge as common strategies for success. They are identifying near-term goals that illuminate the best way to move forward, reducing the fear of failure, hedging your bets by trying alternatives if Plan A doesn't work and creating momentum. Harvard Business Review (5/2009)

• 6 steps to business success
  Tom Peters gives his impressions of a three-day seminar in Shanghai. The key six points for business success from the seminar are aspiring, listening, asking, failing, succeeding and focusing on excellence. TomPeters.com (5/5)

Sales

• Watch what people are writing about your products online
  Research indicates that consumers are more influenced than ever by online comments about a product, so it's in a company's best interest to stay on top of its online reputation and fine-tune its marketing accordingly. The research specifically shows people are most influenced by what existing users of the product have to say about it, and that input can be a marketer's best friend or worst nightmare. Kellogg Insight (5/2009)

	The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS) Dave Kahle Seminar for Sales Managers - June 4 & 5, 2009 in the Chicago Area Interested in learning more about advertising in NAW SmartBrief? Contact Jim Pataki at (202) 407-7850 or jpataki@smartbrief.com.

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by NAW SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Chrysler bankruptcy could devastate distributors (Modern Distribution Management)

• How worried are you that swine flu will hurt your business? (NAW News)

• Survey: Johnson & Johnson America's most reputable company (Forbes)

• Study: Obama's cap-and-trade could cost $1,400 per U.S. household (Reuters)

• Take big-picture approach to sales territory (DaveKahle.com)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Small Business Manager

• Your word still is your bond
  Doing what you say you will has a lot of value in the workplace, writes Cory Moore, vice president of Big-D Construction in Salt Lake City, who offers five tips on what to consider before making any commitment. Among Moore's tips: Understand what it takes to do what you promise, be honest about expectations and prepare answers to customers' questions. BusinessWeek.com/Today's Tip blog (5/5)

Sponsored Content

Executive Life

• New software system expected to bring revolutionary change to Internet
  New software making its debut this month is being heralded as a revolutionary development that could put Google to shame and represent a first step toward a global source of information that understands and responds to ordinary language. The system, called Wolfram Alpha, not only will be able to answer questions such as "How high is Mount Everest?" but it will be able to instantly calculate questions such as comparing the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, or tell what the weather in London was like the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The Independent (London) (5/3)

• Cell phones becoming indispensable airline travelers
  More than a dozen U.S. airports are currently testing paperless boarding passes as airlines seek to advance the trend toward self-service. Travelers report some bugs with the new systems, which send boarding passes -- complete with bar codes -- directly to cell phones and other mobile devices. Still, one expert predicts the cell phone soon will be indispensable to airline passengers, "almost like a pocket travel agent or a pocket travel assistant." National Public Radio (5/4)

NAW Insider

• NAW's Billion Dollar Company CEO Roundtable -- Oct. 13 to 14
  Benchmark and network with other CEOs of like-sized wholesale distribution companies. Find out how their companies are surviving the economic downturn and how they are positioning their companies for the coming rebound. The CEO Roundtable is a valuable business tool to learn about cutting-edge strategies and hear updates on legislative issues. NAW members receive one free registration. Register now.

Weekly Poll

• Do you read online posts -- from blogs, Twitter, chat rooms, etc. -- about your company's products?
  After voting once, check out the real-time poll results on NAW's All Access page as often as you'd like.

	Yes.
	No.

DIRECTOR OF FOOD SERVICE GUMMER WHOLESALE, INC HEATH, OHIO Bearing/OEM Sales Specialist AAXICO Home Based

SmartQuote

Never discourage anyone ... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." --Plato, Greek philosopher