65. How Digital Innovation Changed the Landscape for Manufacturers and Distributors | Tom Gale, CEO of MDM

Karthik Chidambaram: Hello, everyone. Welcome to a new episode of the Driven
by DCKAP podcast. I'm your host, Karthik Chidambaram, CEO of DCKAP. We make
systems talk to each other for manufacturers and distributors.

We are here in the Windy City, Chicago, Illinois. It's an honor to be
chatting with Tom Gale, Chief Executive Officer of Modern Distribution
Management, MDM. Tom, welcome.

Tom Gale: Thank you. Pleasure to be here.

Karthik Chidambaram: So, Tom, great to see you here in Chicago. For the
audience, who're not very familiar with what MDM does. Can you briefly tell
us about MDM and what you guys focus on?

Tom Gale: Yeah, absolutely. So it was founded in 1967 actually, and it was
really a journal for the industry of somebody who had been the editor of
Industrial Distribution Magazine in the 1960s. He recognized a need or an
opportunity to create more of a newsletter journal for leaders of
distribution companies to really help them innovate, and to examine the best
practices that were happening at other companies.

So he did this and really started to focus on the strategies, on the best
practices, and really the whole focus was how to help distributors manage
their distribution businesses better.

Karthik Chidambaram: And MDM was started in 1967?

Tom Gale: Yes, it was.

Karthik Chidambaram: By who, who started it?

Tom Gale: The man was named Van Ness Phillip. And he was, it was a Dutch
family from upstate New York, but he got into the industry and just through
publishing became really an expert essentially working for Industrial
Distribution Magazine, which itself was started right around 1900.

So it was. You know, that had been for decades, the magazine that covered
really the core of wholesale distribution.

Karthik Chidambaram: So you have a lot of history on distribution right
there.

Tom Gale: Yeah, so the story then where I got involved was in 1992. Actually
it was earlier than that because in Minnesota, in the 1980s, I would have my
own marketing communications business. I was working with a lot of companies
like 3M, Toro, Honeywell.

A lot of great manufacturing companies up there, but also the distributors
that supplied the manufacturing operations up there as well. So I got to
know distribution. I was doing profiles of companies there. Got to know
really all of the leaders of the distribution companies in Minnesota and
know some of them still very, very well continue to be good friends after 40
years.

But it really was an education in the value proposition that distribution
brings to manufacturing at every level, really.

Karthik Chidambaram: How do you get the domain name MDM.com? It's a three
letter domain name and everybody loves it. How do you get that?

Tom Gale: So, I just recognized- I had done a lot of technology work
actually in the 1980s in my Marcom business and I was doing documentation
for software manuals and, so I was always pretty savvy and interested in
technology.

So we had an opportunity in 1992. I was brought in actually by a
distributor, third generation distributor who had, he and his brother had
run a company in Minneapolis, Rusty Duncan. He brought me into this and
said, hey, there's this opportunity. I'm talking with this guy who runs a
newsletter, would you be interested? And I said, sure. And six months later
he gave me a call. We did the deal and we became partners in it.

And so that's how I got into it in 1997 or so. I recognized that hey, you
know, the internet is starting to evolve and I, there's- I just, I went out
and I recognized that MDM, that URL was available. So I got it. To this day
I get, you know, two or three emails a week of people who want to buy it. So
yeah, it was a good URL to get.

Karthik Chidambaram: Yeah. That's a big win. So when did you become the CEO
of MDM?

Tom Gale: So my partner was the CEO, President of MDM. And I was a Vice
President and I ran the editorial, and he really kind of handled all the
publishing pieces of it. He actually built his own software to manage the
circulation and subscriptions. Because he was a tech guy as well. And he was
the one that actually developed the modeling that MDM analytics is now based
on his company.

He started and spun out of his family's company to start this market data
company called industrial market information. So we together ran MDM during
the 1990s. I worked with him with his market data company as well,
supporting that. We sold MDM in 1999 to a software company, MRO software,
that wanted to build a portal where everyone in the world was going to come
and buy MRO supplies. So, and it was MRO.com and it was a marketplace and it
was a dot com supported entity.

Then three years, kind of the whole dot com bubble bust. And at that point I
was able to buy the company back. And so I became the sole owner and it was
really in 2002 where I really recognized there was an opportunity to develop
the digital aspects, because the internet was starting to mature, there was
more capabilities, and really started to create more of a research based
type of a framework for MDM to cover the industry.

Karthik Chidambaram: So we always believe in long term thinking, and
distributors also think long term. They are all family businesses, been
there for a long time, and so is MDM, and I find that very fascinating.
Where do you get this long term thinking from?

Tom Gale: Well, you know, that's a good question. I think it's a combination
of things. You know, the key characteristic of distribution in general is
it's an incredibly fragmented and diverse process, ecosystem. You know,
there are a lot of smaller companies, family owned, you know,
multi-generation companies at a local level.

You've got the midsize regionals and then you've got the nationals and
internationals at play and all of them have their own unique value
proposition. What I think, and this is going to go beyond answering your
question, but it's the only way I know how to really address it. Because, if
you think about the U S economy. There is no other economy in the world that
has its flexibility and adaptability. You know, take a look at what happened
in the great recession. Take a look at what happened when the pandemic hit.
Yes, everybody got knocked back, but distributors reacted very quickly and
they've always been very responsive to their customers.

It's just the nature of what they do, you know, and that's how a lot of
these distribution companies developed. You know, even in the 1800s, mining
supply, as manufacturing developed, the whole history of distribution is
really one of figuring out how to get the right part, piece of equipment to
the right place at the right time.

That has not really changed in terms of that value equation. What has
changed is just all the different channels and alternate channels that have
emerged, and particularly with digital has completely changed the landscape.
So, what the real value proposition of distribution, I think, is, it really
has made this the most vibrant economy and really enabled the kind of growth
that no other economy enjoys.

Karthik Chidambaram: So you were at the right place at the right time and
you enjoyed distribution and continued doing it.

Tom Gale: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Karthik Chidambaram: So you do a lot of research, like you just talked
about, you evaluate a lot of distributors and publish reports on. Who are
the top distributors in the country are on different verticals. So, from
your perspective, you know, because you have looked at the data of a lot of
different distributors, what makes a good distributor, let's say if I want
to be on the top of that list, what should I be doing?

Tom Gale: Yeah, well, as you say, we, across almost two dozen verticals
industrial, construction, building materials, we profile each of those
verticals in terms of the top five, ten, or even longer list of
distributors, of the largest, and we, it's a revenue ranking. And I always
like to make it clear is, you know, yes, revenue is a scorecard, but there's
so many other aspects that really make what a great distribution company
looks like, and there's, you know, there's no one flavor really. I think
more than anything else, and this actually goes back to.

I was fortunate enough around 2000 to co-author a book that was published by
the National Association of Wholesaler Distributors. And my co-author was
Bill McCleave, who was a researcher and consultant in distribution. And we
put our heads together and got really interested in identifying what were
the characteristics of great consumers.

Distribution companies around, and it was around differentiation. So we went
after and identified very key aspects of what differentiation looked like in
all different types of companies, did a number of case studies, but there
was a few key characteristics that emerged. One was great leadership, that
was really a key thing.

You needed to have, you know, essentially the leader of the company, and the
culture and the team was really motivated and really energized. Another key
thing was really around just sort of that flexibility and the culture aspect
of being able to not be so, you know, rigid in your day to day that you
can't really think creatively about what you do and what you do well.

And, strategy was a part of that, and as much, you know, not doing
everything but really focusing on the things that really made a difference.
And then the real differentiator though is, was really those who had process
discipline. I mean, a lot of companies have great ideas but they can be kind
of chasing one way or another.

And in a lot of ways, that's just been the nature of a lot of distribution
companies because they've been really responsive and customer responsive and
very close to the customer. And so, you know, when the customer says, well,
we want you to do this, you know, that's sort of how distributors ended up
developing their portfolios and their value added services ultimately.

And those value added services is how they really differentiated. So, when
you say, what defines a great distribution company, I think it's those
companies that really know who they are, what they're really good at, and
don't get distracted. They have the kind of process discipline not to go
over here and go off after things that may not be as profitable and as good
for the long term growth of the business.

Karthik Chidambaram: So leadership, culture, strategy, and process. Process,
yeah, and that process discipline is, I'd say that is more in shorter supply
than a lot of others. I mean, that's just the nature of it. So you look only
at public companies or also at private distributors?

Tom Gale: Oh, no, very much. No, very much private. And like I say, this is
it you know, what's really interesting, I would say even more so today than
25 years ago when we were doing this research is that I, it's not really
about size of company and resources. It's really about mindset. And you
know, you've got some smaller distributors who bat way above their grade
because, really, they're thinking creatively.

They're thinking future focused and they're able to do things in their
company with the resources that they have that really differentiate what
their competitors offer in the marketplace. So it's really about that, you
know, they're doing the right things in terms of communicating, what their
value is and then executed on it really, really well.

Running a publishing business is very hard as you know, and you know, do
distributors sometimes reach out to you? Hey, I want to be on the top spot
or maybe the third spot or something like that. Or how do you, I mean, in
terms of, sometimes I also think that publishing business, mostly
advertisement driven, you know, and all that, you would need the ad dollars
to run. So what are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, and it's interesting because, you know, everybody's sort of familiar
with trade magazines and, you know, primarily a lot of magazines, they're-
advertising is their revenue stream. Modern distribution management, the way
I describe it, it's a niche, business media company, and that includes and
market research company. And that includes market data and a data analytics
component to it, as well as content.

We have a hybrid revenue stream because we both have membership based
content. But we also have, you know, web based and sponsorship driven
revenue as well. So there's sort of a balance there, but it's an industry
model to operate because there's a lot of flexibility and you know, we have,
we look very different today. So for a good part of MDM's life, until about
2002 when I started to expand some of the channels and platforms it had been
really a twice a month newsletter since 1967.

And it was I think back in the early 2000s, you know, the subscription was
150 a year for 24 issues, something like that. You know, I think we're up
like 400-450 a year and now we're actually putting out a digital monthly
edition and up. You know, uploading and refreshing our content on a
continual basis.

We also put out a PDF monthly, we do an MDM premium monthly. So, you know,
we do that, but we do a lot of webinars that are sponsored and that are you
know, lead gen tools for, for the sponsors, primarily a lot of the
technology companies that are selling into, but other service providers as
well, we work with we podcast we do conferences, started doing conferences
in 2017, so it's, it's really diversified in terms of what we do.

A lot of the diversification over the last 20 years has been deeper, more
deeply into research reports in terms of how we're able to segment and, and
just provide a lot of insights and data around the structures of the
industry, but also market opportunities MDM analytics. It's actually a SAS
tool.

So, you know, a good part of the revenue stream is also through a SAS
subscription base, where people are able to analyze what the estimated
market size and segmentation of demand is across about 200 different
industrial and construction related products.

Karthik Chidambaram: I like the diversification of revenue, especially the
membership part, and also the SAS, MDM, and analytics. It's very
interesting.

You recently got acquired by NAW, National Association of Wholesale
Distribution. Tell us about that.

Tom Gale: Yeah. So, I am 69 years old. And I am, sort of, thinking about
what my own succession and future looks like. And so I, in January, we sold
MDM to NAW, and it's as I looked at the future of MDM, the brand and also
our team it, it really felt like the right place for MDM to land in terms
of, if you take a look at how NAW has evolved in its long history, we have
run very parallel courses.

We've partnered on a lot of things and so it was a very natural connection
and combination in terms of bringing the kind of content and research
expertise we have to the incredible network that NAW has also built over
many, many decades as well. So, it's a great combination, and I'm really
excited for the future. And, you know, I've been asked to stay on and
continue to help in a transition phase as well. So I'm having a lot of fun.

Karthik Chidambaram: You don't look 69, Tom.

Tom Gale: Oh, thanks. That's because I'm having so much fun.

Karthik Chidambaram: Totally, yeah. And how did you meet with Eric Hopland?

Did he reach out to you, or you reached out to him, or how did that actual
transaction happen?

Tom Gale: So this is actually, it's a, it's a good story. They have actually
I've been attending the annual NAW executive summit. I think my first one
was in 1993 and attended most of those and fantastic annual meetings.

We, they did a fun run at 6 AM in the morning where, and it's held in
Washington, DC, late January. And so it's cool, but they do a fun run from
essentially the Washington Monument down to the Lincoln, you know, it's like
a 5k fun run around the memorial pool and that. And so I ran down to the
Lincoln Memorial and then just, I hadn't really met and talked with Eric at
that point.

And this is a couple of years ago. And we just started walking and Eric
asked a few questions about what I, you know, what I thought about the
future and MDM. That, that was an initial conversation and from there we,
then we started to have some additional ones. And so but, but that's it
started on the, on the mall of Washington, DC.

Karthik Chidambaram: The fun, and I also took part in a fun run with you
this year, early this year. And when we were chatting about this
acquisition, you also shared a very interesting story that even prior to
NAW, you also tried to get another home for MDM. And what were some of your
learnings there? You know, because that was challenging.

Not so much on track with what you were hoping to achieve. So what are some
learnings from this journey in terms of how to find a potential buyer?

Tom Gale: Yeah, I mean, I don't have any magic formula in so many ways. I
just I'm so deeply passionate about this industry and the value of this
industry. That to me, it's, it's really about just finding the right fit or
advancing, you know, I'm so proud of what I've been able to be the steward
of essentially for 32 years and, you know, yes, I've contributed a lot, but
there's, There's been a ton of people over the years who have contributed a
lot, and really great people who are, who are, continue to be in the
industry, who are thought leaders, and they, they really are as much
responsible for the success of MDM as I have been.

I think, you know, I've been able to, Create some relationships and leverage
some relationships that have really added a lot of value to MDM going
forward. So as I went through this, that for me, that was really the
critical piece was as I think about the future of MDM and how it can best
serve the industry, I'd really like to see see that continue to happen for
decades.

And so to me, it was really to hand it off to the best, I guess, future
steward that was going to be able to best support, invest in it, and grow
it, continue to grow it. And absolutely, that's why, I mean, NAW is the best
possible option for that.

Karthik Chidambaram: NAW is a great home for MDM. And you recently won the
Lifetime Achievement Award at NAW early this year.

Congratulations and thanks for all the great things you've done. How does
that feel? And I'm sure that would have been a great home for you.

Tom Gale: Yeah, it makes me feel old. Yeah, I mean, like I said, MDM is
really about the community of thought leadership. I think I've always
understood the power of media platforms and building community.

And, and that's what I'm, I'm really proud about the community because I
think it's really created win win relationships for the consultants, for the
service providers. You know, it's just, it's, it's an incredible ecosystem
that we all operate in. Ultimately, it's a pretty small group of people and
just there's a whole lot of people who really support and, you know,
everybody's looking for good ideas and, you know, to me, it's, they can come
from anywhere.

And so just to be really open to that. To me, that's kind of what I feel
good about is I've been able to sort of create that platform for a lot of
people to come in and share, you know, and create value for the for the
greater industry, you know,

Karthik Chidambaram: building communities, talking about communities. Can
you give me a practical example of how the distribution community has been
able to leverage the research done by MDM and use it for their growth?

Tom Gale: Sure. Yeah, absolutely. So this this actually ties in a little bit
to, you know, just a few weeks here. We're going to have our annual shift
conference. So, you know, over the last two decades, I would say MDM, a lot
of the focus of our research has been around technology and technology
leverage and how distributors can really figure out the right fit and what
the right tools are that they can do to really help their teams and just
build a better business.

The focus of our research About 10 years ago, started to bring in, in
addition to a lot of the digital transformation and the threats of Amazon
business, really started to look at the other kind of big existential threat
out there, and that is sort of the core traditional distribution models
outside sales focused very heavily outside sales was starting to show some
cracks and get challenged by these alternate Sources like Amazon business
and others, very different cost, cost to serve propositions, very different
value propositions, and a lot of more transparency and pricing that all of a
sudden opened up a lot of things that, that distributors didn't have to
think about so much.

You know, and there was really a lot of commoditization that came with that
as well. So this is turning into a long answer, but it's a pretty complex
equation in terms of if you look at over the last 10 years, it was about 10
years ago when I sat down with Mike Marks of Indian River Consulting Group.

And, you know, I asked him, I said, what is the existential threat over the
next five years? And is there something that we can partner on in terms of,
of researching and developing some value? And his answer was the outside
sales model. And so we developed started to do some research, did some
projects, but then.

We ultimately created an event, a conference in 2017 that we have done since
sales GPS for many years. And we rebranded that two years ago to shift, but
it was really around how do you transition? And it's a very difficult, it's
a very difficult proposition. You, you know, you don't want to hurt the
golden goose.

That lays the eggs. And you know, you're not going to throw your salespeople
off the bus, but many, many distributors have aging sales forces. Customers
are very different in how they want to buy from their distributors and how
they want to interact. And so, you know, there are absolutely ways to, to
manage that, you know, create a stronger inside sales framework for some
it's created stronger digital.

Access, but really just making it as easy for customers to do business
however they want to do business. If it's by phone by fax, which people
still do by text, you know, really any any kind of way. So that really has
formed the core of our research is really around sales process. And then if
you're talking about that today, though, and what started to develop as we
continue to go through this was it's really much more integrated with
everything that's taking place because there's the digital transformation
aspects of it.

And if you're talking about digital transformation, you know, that is really
tied to how you're going to go to market, what your go to market model looks
like if you start fiddling with those levers as well. And if you're doing
that, then your data analytics. Really need to be good. You need to start to
think about how can you really increase the quality?

How do you manage your data better? And a lot of that was driven by
e-commerce, right? So a lot of people went after and cleaned up their
product data Immediately and and a lot of people are in a pretty good place
as far as their product data and you know They're master data management,
you know, some have Cleaned up and, and align with their supplier data.

That's typically in this journey that people are on. And that's how we frame
all of this because everybody's at a different stage, whether it's in their
sales process journey, whether it's in the digital journey or their data
analytics journey, everybody's at a different stage. And, and so what we try
to do in our shift conference every year is to just try to bring all these
elements together, give people a lot of thoughts about what the leaders are
doing in each of these areas.

And actually a playbook and assessment of where they are today and give them
some guidance and really a North Star for how they can go back and start to
move the appropriate pieces and move their journey forward. The data
analytics piece though, the final thing I wanted to just touch on. Tie off
on that is, you know, the, the last piece of data management typically for a
lot of people is in their customer data.

They haven't done a lot with that. And this is where MDM analytics has
really focused on, on trying to help and support distributors and
manufacturers. We provide, we licensed the Dun Bradstreet database and use
that to we, we do a lot of clean and append work with distributors to help
them clean up their customer lists.

To be able to segment them better. I mean, even apply North American
industry classification codes, which replaced SIC codes, which retired 20
years ago, but a lot of people are still using SIC codes in a lot of ways.
That's not bad, but it's just with the way industries have developed, you're
not going to find SIC codes for electric car manufacturing.

You know what I mean? It's those types of new and emerging industries. It
gives. A distribution leadership team, the ability to go in and look at its
customer segments, look at their sweet spots, look at opportunities outside.
And that's where our data, our market data and our SAS. We can help people
identify even at the prospect level, but we can really help people identify
where there's some good opportunity from around metro areas or any kind of
territory for specific product categories.

Karthik Chidambaram: I like the word shift. You always keep shifting to
bigger and better things.

Tom Gale: Well, and that's, that's where this really came from was, you
know, this, this is a shift. Everybody's in some form of shift, but it's
really kind of a mindset shift in terms of business model innovation. And
that's really, it's, it's a distribution model innovation.

And that's what our conference is about. And that's really the pillars of
all of our research is really about, you know, this distribution model
innovation that everybody Is, and particularly since the pandemic hit in
2020, everybody's been in some sort of a stage of business model innovation.
You know, some of them have been dragged kicking and screaming, but others
who embrace that quickly have seen wonderful results in terms of, you know,
the, how, how they've really developed stronger customer relationships,
stronger supplier relationships, and really their teams have, they've been
able to create higher performing teams in market conditions over these last
four years that have been, you know, Challenging and you know, currently
sluggish, you know, it's been tough market conditions.

Karthik Chidambaram: I really like how calm you are. So is there anything
special you do to stay calm all the time?

Tom Gale: I was on a little golfing weekend with some friends a couple of
weeks ago and one of the guys in the group said, you know, you make a bad
shot and you don't like swear and make a big deal out of it. How do you do
that?

And it's like, well, you know, I mean, there's bigger things in life, right?
You know, there's, there's bigger, there's bigger issues in life. You know,
I think it's partly, I've been doing this for 40 years. I've been studying
and analyzing distribution channels for 40 years now. My marketing
communications business, there's a lot of sea changes that take place.

And there's these longer term things that are taking place, you know, I
think because I have been doing it so long, it's like, you know, you see
like these disruptions and it's, it creates these opportunities for people.
And, and there's certain leaders who recognize that and jump on it. And we
did a lot of case studies right out of the, When the pandemic hit, we did a
live series every, every week, and we brought on a lot of, of leaders who
were pivoting quickly.

And, you know, there's so many stories like that. And that's what I just
find fascinating about this industry. There's a lot of really innovative
leaders and great leaders in this industry of wholesale distribution. And
that's, that's what just keeps me, you know, sort of really engaged and
passionate about.

Karthik Chidambaram: So Tom, you've been in distribution for the last 40
plus years. So what's the thing that surprised you the most?

Tom Gale: You know, there's been economic shocks and, and rebounds. So, you
know, those are just normal business cycles. Beyond that, there's been a
couple of major, I would say, technology and, and channel shifts, really.

The biggest one, obviously, I think that everybody would agree on is Amazon
business. And, you know, 2013, 2014, 2015, where they were then and now 10
years later. Absolutely huge. 1990s integrated supply. Again, these are
things that have all been fueled by the advance of technology in different
ways. And so, if you look at those, they were very disruptive at the time.

Digital, CD ROM catalogs were very disruptive initially. You know, kind of
through everybody had to get CD ROM catalogs going. So there's been these
specific technology disruptors that have come in. But that's also forced a
lot of innovation. The interesting thing around Amazon business is that, you
know, it absolutely took a chunk out of most distributors hides, in terms
of, you know, there was a certain amount of commoditized business that they
lost to Amazon business or specific channels that they got taken out.

But again, I think it really helped them focused in many ways on what they
do best and where they have strengths and a lot of distributors have
adapted. So I think, you know, Amazon business has not killed distribution.
I do not predict that. It's been incredible, the growth of Amazon business,
but it's also, I think, helped distributors more clearly identify where
their value added services are going to differentiate and really help them
create stronger competitive advantage.

Karthik Chidambaram: And disruptions are very good, I think, because it
always keeps you in a sense of paranoid and only the paranoid survive.

Tom Gale: There's a lot to that. Absolutely. Yeah. Complacency has been a
challenge for this industry often. And that's where, you know, it, it has,
it's a, it's a mature industry. And so that's where, if you look at other
industry sectors in the economy, you know, innovators find ways to come in
and disrupt with different business models.

And, and that's where distribution business models are very strong, but they
need to adapt, they need to be innovated, and you can't be complacent about
it.

Karthik Chidambaram: There's a great book on this, Only the Paranoid
Survive, Andy Grove. Tom,

Tom Gale: what does the future look like for distribution? I'm very bullish.
I'm really bright on it.

And, and for a couple of different reasons, I believe, and this gets us into
artificial intelligence, actually, because I really believe that, you know,
it's not a magic bullet, but it's another technology innovation that
distributors can leverage if they do it appropriately. I really think in
many ways, it's going to help level the playing field.

You do great work in terms of really helping distributors create
transparency and visibility across their systems with customers, with
suppliers. That's the foundation, and that's critical. I believe, though,
that increasingly distributors are going to be able to automate processes.
They already are, in terms of leveraging AI and, and other, you know, You
know, machine learning just doesn't need to be AI all the time, but I really
believe this is going to not so much create competitive advantage as it's
going to really help distributors of every size sort of elevate their
capability to serve their customers.

So that's kind of a subtle differentiation, I think, but I think that's
important. So around that, where I see the role of MDM and particularly
with, with NAW and our parallel missions and our joint missions now for the
future is through a combination of research and industry coverage and this
networking where we're really bringing together the best ideas and creating
events and networks for people to exchange these ideas.

That to me is where the real power of this industry can, you know,
defensively. You know, fight off the challenges that are, you know, continue
to, to come wave after wave, that's just, you know, cycle of history, having
that kind of an organization, I think that is really a resource, a powerful
resource, not only for information and, and guidance on managing and running
companies, but also this, this community where people can come together,
share their ideas, take them back and, and really improve and build higher
performing companies.

That to me is the future and, and so, so how. You know, why I got so excited
about the combination of MDM and AnyDebby.

Karthik Chidambaram: Yeah, power of community. You learn from each other.

Tom Gale: Absolutely.

Karthik Chidambaram: Tom, I really like the name SHIFT and your SHIFT
conference is coming up. Tell us about the SHIFT conference. Where is it
happening and who's coming?

Tom Gale: September 11th to 13th, you know, we're probably going to have 250
people in the room and it's a great program. We're going to have fireside
chats with John Engel of Wesco. Keith Rosolus, who's the CEO of ABC Supply,
the largest building materials, and also with John Wieborg who's the
president and CEO of Stellar Industrial.

They all have great stories about how they have been managing their
innovation journeys very different. Very different scales, obviously, but
all great stories about digital transformation, how they're leveraging
analytics and how important that has been to them and also how they have
really shifted their sales process.

And that's been the key journey that the shift conference has tracked over
the last eight years now, and that is we're bringing into the room. Many
different viewpoints, including some awesome keynotes by both Gartner and
McKinsey teams that are focused on distribution, as well as a lot of panels
of, of distributors and others.

We're really focused on all of these transformation levers that any size
distributor is able to use and put into play to create a higher performing
company. That's the bottom line. And I'm really excited for it. September
11th to 13th, downtown Denver, still opportunity to register.

Karthik Chidambaram: It looks like a great conference and how long do you
prepare usually for these conferences?

You know, you have great names speaking and you also have McKinsey, Gartner.
Not easy to pull everybody together on the same room. How do you do it?

Tom Gale: Yeah, we built some great relationships and it's fantastic that
they're, they're willing to come in and spend some time with us. You know,
we, we start pretty much the cycle is right away and pretty quickly.

And then the last six months it's, we try to get an agenda put together six
months ahead of time. It's harder. Events are harder and harder. You know,
they're, it's more crowded. Yeah. But we really focus on making this very
different than any other type of event that's out there in terms of the
really the level of connection between strategic concepts and bringing into
the room the stories of how distributors are tactically putting these things
into practice and making some big changes and getting some great results.

And so we're, we're really connecting that strategy with the tactics. And
then ultimately we frame this at the beginning with an assessment. So we, we
do the opening two hours of the conference with an assessment of where you
are in your digital transformation journey, in your sales process, in your
data analytics, and also in your culture, because if you don't have the kind
of team, if you're not thinking about the talent of the future to adapt and
really build that.

Transformed company in a higher performing company, you're not going to be
able to make changes. And this is all about change management. So there's
also a lot of conversation, a lot of sessions around change management, and
that's that's really the hardest work around this.

Karthik Chidambaram: It's all about shift, and you have been doing this for
eight years, the conference.

Tom Gale: Yes, yeah, it was our sales GPS where we really were focused on
the sales process and this transition that every year. Transcribed by https:
otter. ai Distributor is going through in terms of they're shifting from a
core outside sales process to a more hybrid sales where it's digital, more
inside sales support, and it's it's more efficient, creates deeper customer
engagement.

Because customers are buying very differently and they want to interact and
get information from their distributors very differently than even five
years ago. And that's why we focus on it that way, because it is a shift
from how the traditional go to market models that were very successful for a
long time.

It's this shift to the much more hybrid. Sales model. That is, it is gonna
be the future of distribution.

Karthik Chidambaram: Good luck with the shift, Tom. Tom, I would like to end
with this question. What book are you reading by now?

Tom Gale: I am reading Team of Rivals, which was written by Doris Kerns
Goodwin, and it is about Lincoln and his cabinet because.

When Lincoln was elected in 1860, he brought on as his cabinet the three or
four primary rivals who all thought they were going to beat him in the
Chicago Convention in 1860 and thought that they were going to win the
Chicago Convention. They lost. Lincoln kind of got in sideways a little bit.

And we all know from a historical perspective sort of what happened. He then
brought all of these people who kind of, you know, they all had egos. He all
brought them into a room and, and made them his team to address, you know,
the biggest challenge our nation ever faced and led through that. So it's a
great story about leadership, about bringing together incredible talent and
the personalities that are involved in that.

So I'm, I'm a big history buff.

Karthik Chidambaram: That's a great skill to have. Tom, thank you so much
for joining us on this Driven Podcast. I really enjoy interviewing you and
thanks for all the great things you do. Nice meeting you.

Tom Gale: Always, always love our conversations. Thank you.

Karthik Chidambaram: Thank you. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the
Driven Podcast.