Brian Hopkins

As Chief Operations Officer of Distribution Strategy Group, I’m in the unique position of having helped transform distribution companies and am now collaborating with AI vendors to understand their solutions. My background in industrial distribution operations, sales process management, and continuous improvement provides a different perspective on how distributors can leverage AI to transform margin and productivity challenges into competitive advantages.

  • How a Measured Approach to Customer Experience Can Drive Real ROI for Your Company

    How a Measured Approach to Customer Experience Can Drive Real ROI for Your Company

    Companies that focus on Customer Experience often outperform those that do not.

  • Making Money with Small Customers: Defeating the Profit Drag

    Making Money with Small Customers: Defeating the Profit Drag

    Companies typically start with small customers, grow some of them into large customers, continue to add new small customers and learn a lot from serving all of them.

  • The 6 Cs of Unifying Your Employees Under One Message

    The 6 Cs of Unifying Your Employees Under One Message

    Some of the best distribution companies have unified the diverse voices that make up a business into one message, both internally and externally. I call this Many Voices, One Message. The idea is a staple of the B-to-C world.

  • Why the Trend Is Your Friend

    Why the Trend Is Your Friend

    Data points in time indicate a real trend either up or down less than half of the time. By tracking trends, we can do a better job matching our expenses and cost-to-serve with the business, without fuss or emotions.

  • The 3 Elements of Building a Profit-Driven Management Team

    The 3 Elements of Building a Profit-Driven Management Team

    Ask the best private equity investors, or for that matter, any acquiring company such as chains, vertical convergers or platform investors – even independent distribution acquirers – and they will tell you that human capital – leadership and management – is a key factor to consider in any investment opportunity.

  • Think of Your Company as a Portfolio

    Think of Your Company as a Portfolio

    You are familiar with the portfolio concept if you own any kind of equity, bond, real estate or other investment fund. If you’re familiar with the major investment companies – such as Charles Schwab, Vanguard, Fidelity, BlackRock – you are familiar with portfolio strategies.

  • Additional Value Creation: The Real Bottom-Line Drivers in Distribution

    Additional Value Creation: The Real Bottom-Line Drivers in Distribution

    Many independent distribution companies wonder why their gross margin, net profit and attendant multiples are inferior to their $2 billion-plus sales, national-market, publicly held competitors. These competitors may have many structural advantages:

  • The Value of Thinking Like An Investor

    The Value of Thinking Like An Investor

    In this article, I will discuss a useful approach, the Private Equity Investor Framework, which will help you think like an investor to improve and grow your business. You don’t have to be a trained financial professional to use and apply it.