News and Trends

• PSS World Medical's Q3 profit rises
  PSS World Medical's profits increased 28% in its fiscal third quarter, in part due to the company's decision to leave the flu-vaccine business. Although overall sales increased only nominally, the medical supply company's third-quarter net income grew from $11.1 million in the year-ago period to $14.2 million, helped by the company's exit from the high-cost/low-profit vaccine business, this article says. The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville) (1/24)

• Office Depot making private-brand products available in Europe
  Office Depot is extending its Foray line into Europe as part of its bid to make a wider array of its exclusive products available in the continent and to globalize Office Depot's brands. "This is the first time we've globalized a brand available in the United States. But there will be more brands implemented in Europe in the future," said Peter De Coninck, the company's director of private brand and direct import for Europe. Palm Beach Daily News (Fla.)/Cox News Service (1/23)

• Other News

• Cummins expects to increase office space, employees in Indiana
  Forbes/Associated Press (1/23)

Best Practices

• Useful business technologies unveiled at electronics show
  Nifty new electronics unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month include the DYMO File for office organization, and a service called Phonecasting, which allows for a new means of communicating messages over the Internet. American City Business Journals (1/14)

• Online social networking has pros, cons for businesses
  Using social media to make professional contacts isn't all that different from traditional networking, although like any other form of networking, it needs to be handled correctly to ensure it's yielding good results. CustomerThink (1/21)

Sales

• Boost training productivity
  Web-based collaboration offers a new way to increase training quality while lowering costs. Online training and meetings also offer benefits including predictable budgeting, flexibility, interactivity and an improved learning experience. Manage Smarter (1/24)

Hot Topics

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

• Signs of a recession? (Forbes)

• HD Supply closes more branches amid housing slump (Industrial Distribution)

• Wolseley attributes profit loss to U.S. economic woes (Modern Distribution Management)

• Advice: 10 strategies for overcoming fears (DaveKahle.com)

• HD Supply: Tucson plumbing business to close amid home-buying downturn (Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))

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

Small Business Manager

• Expert advice at boot camp gives women entrepreneurs a leg up
  The recent Women Entrepreneurs' Small Business Boot Camp in Scottsdale, Ariz., hosted a range of experts on topics to help startups become successful. The Arizona Republic offers a short overview of what successful women entrepreneurs said about focus, branding, customer service and the Internet. The Arizona Republic (Phoenix) (1/24)

Executive Life

• Analysis: Why some flights are more prone to delay
  Some airports and airlines are more prone to extreme delays and late arrivals than others, a new analysis shows. Wall Street Journal columnist Scott McCartney examines the findings. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) (1/22)

• Best bargains at the world's most expensive hotels
  Even the world's priciest hotels have their bargains. A listing of the cheapest rooms in the priciest hotels includes relative deals in places like Moscow, which has claimed the top spot as having the world's most expensive hotels. BusinessWeek (1/24)

NAW Insider

• Brand-new book: Profit Myths in Wholesale Distribution
  This NAW Institute book has one overall goal -- to change the way distribution managers think about their businesses. Author Albert Bates says that both decision quality and decision consistency are influenced by some very bad information. He promises an eye-opening experience if you accept that much, if not most, of what you have been told about distribution finance issues is wrong.

• 5 Fundamentals for the Wholesale Distribution Sales Manager
  This book from the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence offers a practical but powerful approach for taking your sales force to the next level. It includes essential theories, key concepts and real-world stories taken from the front lines of wholesale distribution. Use this book as a foundation to help you become an effective, high-performing sales manager. Order your copies today!

Weekly Poll

• What technology do you find most useful in doing business?
  After voting once, check out the real-time poll results on NAW's All Access page as often as you'd like.

	PDA/Blackberry...so I can communicate anywhere
	Laptop...so I can work anywhere
	GPS device...so I can get anywhere
	Other

Director of Sales Pacor Inc. Cinnaminson, New Jersey Vice President, Supplier and Product Strategy Summit Electric Supply Albuquerque, NM Operations Manager Exotic Automation & Supply Farmington Hills, MI Director of Purchasing and Vendor Relations Crescent Electric Supply Company East Dubuque, IL

SmartQuote

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others." --Groucho Marx, actor and comedian