We are living in disruptive times. In fact 76% of wholesaler-distributors surveyed believe we are living in an environment we could call the “age of disruption.” Leaders throughout the industry are challenged by the constant pressures coming at them from all directions. These pressures could come from marketplace competitors or be the result of new government regulations, shifting demographics, the accelerating pace of technology, and others. Navigating these big shifts to create a sustainable and relevant business has become the new mandate for every leader and every employee in distribution.

Innovation is at the core of this new mandate, and future success in wholesale distribution will be based on the ability of distribution firms to innovate. To help you and your team hone your innovation knowledge and abilities, trust the expert guidance and real-world expertise found in INNOVATE! How Successful Distributors Lead Change in Disruptive Times by Dirk Beveridge. Each chapter concludes with specific thought processes, action items, and exercises to guide you in your innovation journey.

Innovation means leading customers to a better future for which they are capable and willing to reward you. This requires a continuous journey of change and evolution. Innovative distribution executives will empower their team members to think critically about how to improve their companies … and then to take action on their ideas. For innovation to catch fire, your employees at every level of your company must be prepared, willing, and excited to look at your business as if they have never seen it. They must understand that the ability to transform your business for the future resides within each of them.

April Michelle Davis spent several weeks proofreading this manuscript, ensuring there were no egregious errors in the text. Proofreading is usually performed on a manuscript that has already been through developmental or copyediting and has already been laid out by a designer into page proofs. It provides a last review of egregious errors, such as basic grammar, punctuation, spelling, and inconsistencies, and any other errors that were inserted during the design process.

Combining close textual readings with a broad theoretical perspective, Gender, Narrative, and Dissonance in the Modern Italian Novel is a study of the ways in which gender shapes the principal characters and narratives of seven important Italian novels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi (1827) to Elsa Morante’s Aracoeli (1982).

Silvia Valisa’s innovative approach focuses on the tensions between the characters and the gender ideologies that surround them, and the ways in which this dissonance exposes the ideological and epistemological structures of the modern novel. A provocative account of the intersection between gender, narrative, and epistemology that draws on the work of Georg Lukács, Barbara Spackman, and Teresa de Lauretis, this volume offers an intriguing new approach to investigating the nature of fiction.

April Michelle Davis spent several weeks writing the index for this book.

Growth is imperative. Distributors that are not growing are essentially dying in slow motion. Achieving top-line growth is becoming increasingly difficult given today’s economic challenges and customer demands. That is why the path to achieving and sustaining profitable growth needs a systematic and dynamic approach.

Driving Profitable Growth: A Distributor’s Playbook to Generate–Manage–Sustain Competitive Advantage is the first research study in wholesale distribution to examine both public and private firms and uncover a roadmap that addresses the three dimensions—generating, managing, and sustaining—of profitable growth. At last, distributors have a growth playbook that is based on research and analytics instead of anecdotal information!

The research combines rigorous analytics that were collected from a decade of financial data with input from wholesaler-distributors from multiple lines of trade. It reflects the current environment and determines the roadmap to the future. This study speaks to the growth planning and execution issues all distributors face in leading and growing their organizations. There is no more important time than right now for distribution management teams to read this study!

April Michelle Davis spent a month copyediting this manuscript, preparing it for publication.

The idea of what’s important to us and what makes us happy too often gets lost. It can get lost in the daily work grind, in the demands made by others for our precious time, and in the fear that can come with change. How do you take back your life? How do you move past the challenges of being too busy and not having enough time in a day? How do you move past the nay-sayers who prevent you from getting to the life that you want? There always seems to be some reason, or some person holding you back, putting up a wall that is hard to get beyond. Do Small Things: Taking Little Steps Can Lead to Big Outcomes is a book written to help you take the steps you need to do more with your life. Whether the changes you want for your life are big or small, Do Small Things guides you past the potholes and to a place where you consistently and happily do the things that are important to you. Once you get into the habit of doing small things, doing bigger things becomes easier, and you will find it easy, fun and it easy, fun and rewarding to live a life of DO. It’s out there for you. YOU CAN DO IT!!

April Michelle Davis spent several weeks proofreading this manuscript, ensuring no egregious errors existed.