Company Leaders Often Overlook the Importance of DISTRIBUTION.

The article reflects on how distribution can support a company's overall business and marketing strategy. Topics include Wal-Mart's Sam Walton recognized that many parts of the U.S. did not have access to big-box discount stores, so his initial strategy was largely a distribution strategy of building and logistically supporting large discount stores; and Starbucks created a distribution system for coffee, featuring its own stores and coffee shops, although the economics might have been better.