Vistex Inc articles

Food for thought

While everyone is anxious to close or should I say, slam the door on 2020, there will certainly and unfortunately not be, a ringing in of immediate change or a return to life as we knew it with the new year. The impact of the pandemic is expected to have long-term effects and understanding this along with planning and getting ahead of this, could be the difference between a business surviving or closing its doors. What will 2021 look like for CPG manu

Now that the new year is upon us, I’m looking ahead and trying to imagine what new opportunities and challenges we’ll face in Life Sciences. At times like this, when there are so many unknowns, it can seem like the “perfect storm,” but I think this situation will act as an innovative pricing incubator, and I’d like to share with you some potential life science industry trends for 2021 and beyond.

Face Masked Crusaders

Has the pandemic transformed Paris, London, Milan and New York’s most coveted event—Fashion Week—into Face Mask Week? (One moment—filing the copyright on that phrase.) When athletic wear and yoga pants become the remote workforce’s uniforms du jour, high fashion in 2020 might be mistaken to define branded cannabis hoodies. The utilitarian face ma

It seems like such a logical approach - in a global economy, concentrate the production of low-cost items in low-cost countries, simplify supply chains, and employ lean manufacturing techniques to keep inventories low. And it all works great - until a global pandemic breaks out.

The COVID-19 experience has exposed multiple weaknesses in the life sciences supply chain. The biggest takeaway is that we are dangerously dependent on Asia for critical components and end products in the heal

When 20th century sci-fi looked to the distant future, did you ever imagine the world would look like it does today? Well, to be fair, we didn’t factor in a global pandemic. And now, the entire wholesale distribution sector has been impacted. While we may not be driving flying cars or holidaying on Mars (yet), our technology is revolutionizing our ability to pivot dynamically. The most successful wholesale distributors right now are the ones who have quickly become scalable in handling

Hey manufacturers, what happens when you change your prices? Do your end customers benefit from price cuts, or does that cut get gobbled up by the supply chain? What did you intend to happen? When you raise prices, do distributors and retailers pass that increase along to the end consumer or just absorb it? Are you concerned about effects on consumer demand more than channel cooperation? Knowing the answer to these questions helps you understand just how much pricing power you have.

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How important is it to get pricing right? According to McKinsey, a 1% price increase, on average, yields an 8.7% jump in operating profits - assuming no change in volume. But as many as 30% of pricing decisions made by companies every year are not achieving the best price. The result? A lot of money is left on the table…a lot of lost profit opportunities.

Price optimization, which I discussed in my last blog: