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93 percent of all online experiences begin with a search engine and 75 percent of searchers don’t move past the first page of search results. With home buyers increasingly more likely to start their purchasing research online, content marketing is a strategic way for...
In real estate sales, you want people to find your properties, like what they see, and ultimately be moved to purchase. In other words, you want to attract visitors, convert visitors to leads, and convert leads to deals. Innovative luxury real estate firms are finding...
From coffee makers to urban design, the Internet of Things (IoT) is affecting change in virtually all aspects of daily life. And even though the IoT is still at the early-adopter stage, in just five years 50 billion devices are projected to be connected to the...
Marketing that drives success and elevates brand position. Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a management consulting firm. Since the company was founded we have worked with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation. We have advised and...
Drew McElroy, founder of the start-up Transfix, is no newcomer to the trucking industry. McElroy was born into the business; his parents owned and operated the freight brokerage Andrew’s Express, affectionately naming it after McElroy. “I remember listening to my...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Melanie Payeur graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2007 with a degree in Mechanical...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Ben Minerd received his B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of New Hampshire in 2011...
Software Advice, a Gartner Company, provides detailed reviews and research on thousands of software applications. The company works with buyers to identify supply chain systems that will meet their needs; therefore, making the buying process a little less murky and...
95% of B2B enterprise marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing. The down and dirty is that content marketing works. Content marketing attracts leads and converts leads to customers – and it does so at a lower cost than traditional marketing (and in a...
It’s impossible not to recognize that the business world is changing. Whether it’s the fall of the travel agent as people migrate towards online booking, or the irrelevance of the compact disc as Spotify and iTunes changed the music industry, or how advertising is...
This is a guest post written by Thijs Messelaar. Thijs has more than 15 years’ experience writing, developing content, and informing marketing strategy for various clients, including high tech, higher education, and highly-rated restaurants. The best content marketing...
Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey focusing on social media and logistics and supply chain companies. Respondents shared information on their social media use, motivation, preferences, benefits, and challenges. One-hundred percent (100%) of respondents...
Transfix is poised to disrupt and transform the trucking industry. Uber, the on-demand driver for hire mobile service, has come to stand for disruption. The company has not only transformed the taxi industry, it has changed everything. Uber, Aaron Levie notes, is a...
For many years robots seemed like the brainchild of science fiction writers and directors, meeting the needs of humans as we saw in the Jetsons, or challenging them as we saw in Battlestar Galactica. Occasionally we hear stories on the news of robots being built in...
When thinking about where to focus your company’s social media presence, look at the numbers. LinkedIn generates 80% of B2B social media leads, more than Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ combined. A 2013 study conducted by Demo and CEO.com shared that “LinkedIn remains...
Between 70% and 80% of positions within the supply chain industry are held by men and 95% of top level supply chain positions within Fortune 500 companies are held by men. The lack of gender diversity is bad for business. Recent research by McKinsey & Company...
On average, men make more than women. Here's why we need to change this and close the wage gap. On average, men make more money than women. This is what we call the wage gap— the financial divide between the sexes. This is a complex issue, not one that has an easy...
Don Firth discusses women in the supply chain The supply chain needs women and women could benefit from the many, interesting, well-paying jobs in the field. However, the number of women working in the field is lower than ever. To dig deeper into the current state of...
Cathy Morris, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for Arrow Electronics, Inc., talks women in the supply chain and offers up career advice Men hold 95% of top level supply chain positions within Fortune 500 companies. Outside the corner office things...
Mickey North Rizza talks women in the supply chain As part of our series on women in the supply chain, I spoke with Mickey North Rizza, VP, Strategic Services at BravoSolution. Mickey holds the distinction of Top Female Supply Chain Executive. She has 25 years of...
The number of women who work full-time in the workforce is up 15% since 1979. In the manufacturing sector, the story is very different. The number of men working in the manufacturing sector has increased, while the number of women working in the sector has declined....
M&A can be a strategic move to increase visibility, efficiency, and profits, as well as a smart way to plug missing capabilities within a company, reach new markets, and expand geographically. M&A activity in the past few years has been bustling in all...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Lindsey Marley completed dual undergraduate degrees in Business and History at Southern New...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. David Chadwick is an MBA student at the University of New Hampshire with a background in retail...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Nicole Brooks is an MBA candidate at the University of New Hampshire. Amazon keeps on innovating....
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Michael Hickey is a former fifth grade teacher turned business professional. His experience...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Sarah Hebert is currently a full-time MBA student at the University of New Hampshire, having...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Corey Ducharme is Green Belt Certified in Six Sigma. He has a BA in Business and is currently in...
This article is part of a series of articles written by MBA students and graduates from the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Josh Hutchins received his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire in...
Demand for supply chain professionals exceeds supply by a ratio of six to one. Looking forward, it appears that demand for supply chain professionals will only increase. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that demand for supply chain talent will increase...
A recent study by Forrester found that Instagram users were 58 times more likely to like, comment, or share a brand’s post than Facebook users and 120 times more likely than Twitter users. Yet, in a survey of marketers, only 28% reported making it a priority. With...
There’s a great deal of buzz about social media in the business world – and for good reason. Marketing and communications professionals have made it de rigueur to tap into the popularity of social media networks to extend their brands into the digital world. But when...
Content marketing has become a priority for many companies in recent years. But connecting branded digital content with the right audience can be tricky. A new report from Fronetics Strategic Advisors examines the relationship between social media and content...
Here's why your employees should use social media. "Come here Mr. Watson, I want to see you.” Those were the words yelled by Alexander Graham Bell over the world’s first telephone connection. Bell had no way of knowing that a little more than fifty years later there...
Why "sexy" is a perfect fit for the supply chain. Why do we apply the word "sexy" to things that are non-sexual, like, for example, the supply chain? Sexy is synonymous with the words exciting, appealing, fascinating, desirable, provocative. It’s a buzzword for...
Every career coach will tell you that preparation is the key to interview success. Few ever talk about the key to interview failure. To understand how to succeed, you need to understand the ways you can fail. Here’s your study guide to bombing your next interview....
How to answer answer interview questions and ace your next interview. Congratulations! You just landed a job interview. Your resume proved enough to get you in the door, but now the real work starts. How do you approach your interview preparation to ensure that on...
The economy is getting back on track and some areas of business, like the supply chain, are growing rapidly and experiencing a dearth of applications, sometimes trying to fill "six to eight management jobs" for every one application received. So in an environment such...
When it comes to hiring it is important to get it right. This is especially true for small businesses. This is not only because of the significant financial implications of a bad hire, but also because, as Jeff Haden points out, “When employee No. 300 turns out to...
The world has changed a lot in a century, but Andrew Carnegie’s ideas on leadership endured. When reading the list of specific traits that define "successful leaders in all walks of life" compiled by Napoleon Hill from an interview with Andrew Carnegie, current or...
The inability to delegate effectively is a principal reason why executives fail. According to London Business School Professor John Hunt, only 30% of managers think that they are able to delegate well. Among these individuals only one-third are considered to be good...
It's true. You need to work less and stop checking your emails. Somewhere in California, in the middle of the Redwood Forest, lies Camp Grounded. The school bus on which campers arrive comes alive on weekends with the activity of its new passengers – sing-alongs,...
Employers are increasingly finding flexible scheduling for employees attractive for a number of reasons – not the least of which is to produce cost savings. At 9:15 AM Sam drops his kids off at school and heads over to the coffee shop near his house. He grabs a...
You might be surprised to find currently untapped financial gains just by putting employee happiness at the top of your priority list. The way we work has fundamentally changed. There’s no doubt it is still evolving, but what we know about the way we work is that it...
As much as 80 percent of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions, which doesn’t fare well for a company since a poor hiring choice can cost from 1.5x to 3.5x of that person’s annual salary. Consider an employee who earns $50,000 a year. If that person is a...
Change management is the process of taking an individual or a group of people from a current state to a more desired state. Its recent prevalence, and often necessity, is heavily due to new technology and globalization. As humans we experience change constantly, on...
Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly popular strategies toward growth; however, 40% to 80% of mergers fail to meet objectives. M&A is complicated, and goes beyond simply "the process of buying a company." At its heart it is a strategic selection of...
There are times when change is good. There are also times when change is bad for business. The phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is often attributed to Thomas Bertram Lance, businessman and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Jimmy...
Concurrent with the extraordinary rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), predictive analytics are gaining in popularity. With an increasing number of companies learning to master the precursors to developing predictive models -- namely, connecting, monitoring, and...
During his TED talk on the Internet of Things (IoT) technologist, Dr. John Barrett, described how every thing: appliances, furniture, vehicles, equipment, soil, food, animals and humans can become connected, identified, monitored, managed, and controlled. By 2032 he...
A distribution center struggling with a high number of forklift truck impacts found a way to leverage big data to address a nagging, costly warehouse issue. The company had installed a telematics solution on its forklift trucks, but could not determine the cause of...
Chief among the determinants of success and failure of companies around the world is the ability to effectively communicate ideas and information. Both internal and external communication play critical roles in advancing business objectives. To be sure, connecting...
A survey conducted by Fronetics Strategic Advisors on the use of content within the logistics and supply chain industries found that content is being used by companies as an effective marketing tool. 86% of survey respondents reported that their company uses content...
A survey on content use within the logistics and supply chain industries found that company blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn are seen as the most effective content distribution channels. 75% of survey respondents reported that their company blog is a "very effective"...
B2B companies are creating more content than ever before. This is true too for companies within the logistics and supply chain industries. Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey focused on the use of content within the logistics and supply chain industries....
The Blumberg Advisory Group’s 2014 ITAD Trends Report shows that data security is the number one reason why companies implement an IT asset disposition (ITAD) strategy. That companies are concerned about data security is no surprise. Ongoing media reports have not...
What you need to know about the supply chain talent gap. The supply chain talent gap has been called a "perfect storm." Few topics are shrouded in such doom and gloom. Every report cites doomsday statistics of the impending crisis when, by 2025, 60 million baby...
"[Companies] don't know how to manage it, analyze it in ways that enhance their understanding, and then make changes in response to new insights… they don't magically develop those competencies just because they've invested in high-end analytics tools." -You May Not...
Here's why paying out actually pays off. Contract buyouts within the sports and business worlds aren’t exactly a novel approach to making personnel changes. But what about paying employees — employees who don’t have contracts and haven’t yet earned further...
Losing an employee is expensive. Here are 5 strategies to improve employee retention. The cost of replacing an employee can range anywhere from 50 to 400 percent of an employee’s annual salary according to the Society of Human Resources Management. Meanwhile, The US...
How your business can use social media to generate leads. Leads are essential to the growth of your business, and your marketing strategy is built around finding and connecting with leads. So when 92% of all marketers indicate that their social media efforts have...
Integrate digital and social media practices into trade show routines to increase leads to drive profitable customer action. The world became enchanted by the Koh-i-Noor diamond in 1851 when Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London....
How to use social media as an innovation engine. Innovation is a powerful way to drive growth, but traditional approaches taken by companies to develop innovative products and services are increasingly being found to be unsuccessful in creating growth. The emerging...
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage; social media means business. In a 2013 article in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gerald C. Kane, Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston...
The Internet of Things (IoT) “represents the convergence of the physical and digital worlds. Physical objects are equipped with technology that enables the object to send and receive information via fixed-wire or wireless communications links to the Internet, and to...
St. Patrick's Day by the numbers. Between 1820 and 1930, nearly 4.5 million Irish immigrants made America their home. They brought with them their love for their home country and thus began a centuries-long annual celebration of all things Irish in America. Today more...
Social lurking doesn't drive value; engagement drives value. To realize the benefits and seize the opportunities afforded by social media, companies need to use the information and intelligence gathered through social listening. Another essential component for...
Social listening creates opportunities. Social listening is the process of monitoring social media to identify and assess what is being said about a company, individual, brand, product, or service. Through social listening you can gain market intelligence and...
Frank Underwood and his house of cards offers up valuable business lessons. Netflix’s Emmy-winning drama House of Card’s is one of the most binge-watched shows. Two percent of U.S. Netflix subscribers watched the entire 649 minutes of the second season in just over 72...
Different marketing efforts produce different customer conversion rates. Here's what you need to know so you can maximize your marketing efforts. Deciding where to focus your company’s marketing dollars to attract leads and convert them into customers can be a tricky...
Answering the invariable question: "How often should I blog?" “How often should I blog?” is a question we often get asked. The simple answer is: as often as possible so long as each post is valuable and as long as the quality doesn’t slip. Most people don’t like...
As more warehouses and distribution centers turn to intelligent, high-tech solutions, it is important to take advantage of technology to optimize the efficiency and ultimately increase the revenue of your business. Smart technology now stretches into virtually every...
Measuring blogging ROI is crucial to your overall marketing success. Just as with outbound marketing activities, your company’s inbound marketing efforts should be given the same attention when it comes to Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. In fact, companies who...
Growing in concert with consumer demand, distribution centers are getting bigger. In fact, a 2013 Motorola Warehouse Vision Survey reported that a full thirty-eight percent of respondents would be increasing the size of their warehouses and distribution centers over...
Content curation is an essential component of a marketing strategy. When it comes to creating and executing a successful marketing strategy, content curation is often forgotten. There are two reasons for this: 1) lack of knowledge about what content curation is; and...
The logistics of Boston's snow #snowpocalypse For the past three weeks we have been pretty much like this: shovel, snow blow, tackle commutes, juggle school cancellations, repeat. Charlotte Wilder expressed the sentiments of many when she penned A Breakup Letter to...
An editorial calendar is an invaluable tool; it will drive success. When it comes to blogging, you may know what outcomes your company is looking to achieve, but do you have a specific plan to get there? We know post and pray isn’t an effective strategy. Enter the...
7 steps to a blogging strategy for your business. Blogging has proved to be a successful marketing strategy for many companies. In fact, a full 82 percent of companies who blog daily day have acquired a customer from their blog. Freight logistics company...
Most businesses don’t optimize blog posts. Here are 7 things you can do to optimize a blog post so you can improve your ranking and attract more visitors. Most businesses don’t optimize blog posts and therefore miss out on ranking and, by extension, organic traffic...
You’ve likely heard it before – your business should be blogging. It’s understandable if it isn’t. Given the finite nature of a single workday, we all face daily pressure to prioritize projects and streamline strategies. But isn’t it true that our priorities should...
Reducing paper in the distribution center is good for business (and trees). Paper isn’t a thing of the past in workplaces, but it probably should be. The reasons go well beyond simply saving trees to an even more compelling argument: it's just better business. A 2014...
Think inbound marketing isn't for the supply chain and logistics industries? Guess again. Here are 5 reasons companies in the supply chain and logistics industries need inbound marketing. Companies within the supply chain and logistics industries tend to disregard...
Inbound marketing costs less than outbound marketing. And it works. The internet has empowered customers. It has provided customers with new methods for finding and researching companies. It has also provided customers with new methods for finding, researching, and...
The Valentine's Day supply chain by the numbers. In the late 400s Gelasius declared February 14th as a day for honoring Saint Valentine. Over the years February 14th became associated with love and romance (1300s) and the exchange of cards (1600s). In the 1840s...
Outsourcing fulfillment can makes sense. Amazon has set the standard for speedy fulfillment. Despite being both parodied (make sure to watch Netflix's Drone to Home video) and parroted (the FAA recently clipped a brewery's attempt to deliver beer by drone to Minnesota...
Millennials are Poised to Change the Supply Chain Industry This is part two in a two-part series examining the role of Millennials in the supply chain industry. Part one highlights strategies for attracting and retaining top Millennial talent. With supply chain...
Strategies for attracting and retaining Millennials for the supply chain industry. This is part one of two in a series examining the role of Millennials in the supply chain industry. Part one highlights strategies for attracting and retaining top Millennial talent. ...
If you want to attract B2B buyers with content, you need to understand what B2B buyers think about content. 93% of B2B companies use content marketing. If you want your content marketing efforts to be effective you need to understand why B2B buyers consume and value...
Want to reach your marketing goals? It's time to get SMART. Do you know what it is you’d like to see your business achieve this year? It’s likely you do. In fact, most people know generally what they’d like to see happen over the course of a year because they plan....
Share your experience with the use of content within the logistics and supply chain industries. The amount of content on the internet is astounding, and it is growing by the second (check out One Second on the Internet). 93% of B2B companies are using content...
Content and social media are integral to business growth Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog written by Kecia Gray, Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Communications, Transplace. Transplace is a premier provider of transportation management services,...
The call for more transparent and more ethical supply chains Events such as hurricane Sandy, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Bangladesh factory collapse, and the Ikea horse meat scandal, have positioned the spotlight on the supply chain and have consumers,...
In 2015 The Girl Scouts launched the "Digital Cookie." How will this impact the Girl Scout Cookie Supply Chain? When the Girl Scouts of America began selling their now ubiquitous cookies way back in 1917, their operations were simple: cookies were baked in the ovens...
Don't start the year without asking these 4 essential questions. Well, another year has come and gone. Out with the old, in with the new, right? Wait, not so fast. Don’t overlook the valuable information you can glean from conducting a year end review. Use these four...
In December 2014 Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey to learn the favorite social media accounts of the logistics and supply chain industries. Here are the Facebook accounts which survey respondents identified as favorites: Cerasis Cerasis is a top North...
LinkedIn is a must for companies and for professionals. Profiles, company pages, and LinkedIn groups each serve a purpose, and each are tools which can be used and leveraged by both companies and individuals. With more than 3 million company pages, more than 332...
Social media is driving a business revolution. Companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are beginning to take part in the revolution. Companies within the logistics and supply chain industry are adopting social media as a business strategy – and...
The majority of companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are realizing benefits by participating in social media. The social network that provides the greatest business impact: Twitter. A survey found that 95% of respondents believe Twitter to be...
The start of a new year generally brings with it a host of resolutions. For individuals finding and landing a new job, or advancing in their current job are common resolutions. For companies, identifying talent, hiring, and retaining great talent are typical goals...
Here are the top supply chain and logistics blog posts of 2014 2014 is over and a new year has begun. We look back at the content we created and shared in 2014. Looking at content focused on the supply chain and logistics industries, there are three topics which...