Bruce's Story

 

My Short Story:

Since 1974, I’ve been - an executive, consultant, and entrepreneur - within the world of independent distribution channels. I’m now transitioning from – deals, speaking, consulting and advising – into more writing. Merrifield.com supported my consulting practice from 1994-2010. From 2010 to the present, my new, free, online content has been at both merrifieldact2.com and posts at linkedin under my full name above. Act2 will remain available and static.

This new-look for merrifield.com will support my new content going forward. If you would like to be notified about any new postings, sign up for the “newsletter” (e-lert) service.

The Longer Story:

I graduated from Princeton with a BA in biochemistry in ’72, and then earned an MBA at Harvard ’74.

Starting the summer of ’72 and then full-time from ’74 to ’80, I worked for a St. Louis-based entrepreneur who was building a chain of distribution companies by acquisition. While there, I: rose through the ranks; quarterbacked turnarounds for 4 acquisitions using my own invented customer profitability analytics; and was the chief operating officer for my last two years with the firm. When I left in January of 1980, the chain had 10 profit centers in 4 different product channels with over 300 employees.

I founded the Merrifield Consulting Group, LLC to consult to and look for acquisitions within the world of independent distribution channels.

In 1983, I bought Clark Security Products, a San Diego distributor of security hardware. For fiscal ’82, Clark had $7.8 million in sales with 40+ employees and an operating loss. I turned around Clark by creating a high-performance, service culture which was aimed at dominating one customer-segment at a time. For fiscal ’85, we hit $20M in sales with an operating profit margin of 5% with dramatically fewer customers. (We sold everything to the best instead of selling a little to any and everyone.)

I restructured Clark in ’89 to put my brother, Marshall, at the helm. (I remained a minority shareholder). Clark then proceeded to grow organically by opening new locations across the US. With - superior, targeted, customer-centric - service excellence, Clark grew while putting some entrenched competitors out of business.

Clark was eventually sold to Anixter (now part of Wesco) in December 2010 with sales exceeding $180M and an employee count of over 300.

From 1980 to 2010, I continued (in parallel to Clark activities) to give countless speeches to distributor-principal gatherings in well over 100 different channels. I wrote many articles for trade magazines. And, I authored a book entitled “Electronic Commerce for Distribution Channels”. It was published in June, ’99 by the National Association of Wholesale-distributors (NAW) and sold through three printings.

Aside from speaking, I have done a few contract-turnaround projects. I have served as either a formal advisor or board member for multiple firms. I still offer strategic advice to an array of channel executives. And, I’ve been an early investor and informal advisor to three startup ventures.

ACTS 1,2, and 3

With hindsight, I’m now (February 1, 2025) in the midst of transitioning into my “Third Act”.

Act 1 ran roughly from 1980 to 2010 during which I added lots of content to my first (and now again) eponymous website, merrifield.com.

Act 2 started in ’09 with my becoming a partner in a startup, Waypoint Analytics, that provides both Customer and SKU profitability analytics to distributors as a cloud subscription service. To support Waypoint, a second site was created, merrifieldact2.com, and merrifield.com was mothballed.

I shifted best-content from Act 1 to my Act 2 site. My best, vintage content can be found at merrifieldact2.com under the “resources” tab. All of my new content from ’09 to ’23 was posted at merrifieldact2.com – with one exception. I created a youtube channel in 2012 that has 455 video clips averaging about 4 minutes each: Bruce Merrifield - YouTube.

Now, for “Act 3” to commence! I will switch back to posting new content on this site (merrifield.com). The content themes will be more about helping to coach folks of all ages to master the process of mastering new skills. The pace of change in business has now exceeded the average person’s ability to adapt reactively and informally. To have a lifetime of gainful employment, we must all consciously and continuously - learn, unlearn and relearn.

Questions to consider:

1. What new, soft, pro-social or hard skills (tennis, golf, skiing, instrument, etc.) do you want to master to a black-belt level? Do you, for example, want to be a black-belt 2nd degree at “equanimity” during difficult moments? And, how about getting “wiser faster”. Wisdom has become a scientific study over the past 40 years and is an integration of a number of sub-skills?
    
2. How do we – learn, unlearn and relearn -continuously? Schools haven’t yet figured out how to teach these life skills. So, here’s hoping I can help you to help others to fill the gap.

I’ll end on some personal notes. I have – a wonderful wife; four great, grown kids; and a best dog (Yogi) and cat (Mochi) as home-office colleagues (see picture below). I’m blessed to live year-round in Snowmass Village, CO in great health (so far). And, I’m still improving at mastering, two, “semi-hard skills” - tennis and skiing.

Onward we go together!

Bruce
bruce@merrifield.com



To read about My Objectives, click here.