David Stephenson has consulted to to top publishing organisations in the USA. His expertise has seen changes in thinking in supply chain logistics, use of EDI and addressing oevr and under supply.
That is, in part, how David was introduced a keynote speaker to the full room at the Queensland Newsagents State Conference this morning in Brisbane.
David Stephenson is character created by Steve Davis, a comedian hired by the QNF to open the conference this morning. he was very funny. You can see the text of the presentation here.
It took a while to realise that David was not who he said he was. Some of what he was saying was real: that new media is challenging the traditional newsagency business model and that the current magazine supply model is flawed against newsagents.
It was great to start the day long conference with such an enjoyable presentation and that alone the way, Steve reminded us some truths about our businesses.
In among Steve’s humor were some important messages for the magazine distributors in the audience: we need EDI returns ASAP, we need engagement on how our existing suppliers are playing in the online space and we need to cut costs out of our supply chain.
The key is whether we make genuine progress on these challenges. We’ve left to suppliers in the past. If we (newsagents) act in unison we can force change in our favour.
Bloody hell! I only finished the presentation at 11:00AM and there it is on your blog at 11:19M!. Great work keeping people up to date real fast and thanks for the kind words.