Master B2B Friday 15

In this episode of The Master B2B Friday 15, hosts Jared Blank and Andy Hoar welcome former Grainger executive Meeta Kratz for a candid discussion about leadership in the AI era. Drawing on decades of experience leading commercial growth and digital transformation, Meeta shares how AI is reshaping executive roles, accelerating the rise of fractional leadership, and changing the skills organization...

This week, Andy and Brian talk about the convergence of B2B and B2C eCommerce.  When they look at what customers of each type expect - and the way that B2B companies (and B2C) have responded to those needs, they wonder whether they're 2 different worlds anymore. And they announce that Master B2B has partnered with Shoptalk Fall to bring B2B programming to the B2C-focused event. For more informatio...

This week...TWO special guest stars on the pod (well, one special guest star and one other Master B2B person stepping in for Andy while he's out). Elastic Path CEO Bryan House joins Brian and Master B2B's Jared Blank to talk about getting a grip on your product data.  We chat about where to start, who needs to lead product data initiatives, and why homegrown systems may actually set you up for suc...

This week, Andy & Brian talk about the state of hiring in B2B.  We seem to be in a "no hire, no fire" environment where we aren't seeing massive headcount reductions (outside of some tech companies) and we aren't seeing people leave their jobs on their own. So where does that leave companies that want to make sure their teams are optimized for the skills needed to use new AI technology?  Shoul...

Andy and Brian talk about the anonymous company that allegedly spent - wait for it - $500 million in one month on Claude tokens, and wonder whether we've hit an inflection point where CFOs will put the breaks on token spending. Then they discuss whether the expected drop in token costs in the coming years will be offset by massive increases in token usage.  It's just a matter of time before your c...

Andy and Brian are joined by Dale Edman, Lipton Teas and Infusions' VP of eCommerce & Shopper Marketing for North America, to talk about why Gartner says that 53% of SaaS licenses held by large organizations go unused. Dale talks about how his deep partnership with procurement has helped him keep tabs on his own tech spending, and how he learns about how other parts of his organization are usi...

We're off for the Memorial Day holiday, but we're sharing our recent Webcast on The End of Channel Dependence. For too long, manufacturers and distributors have handed the keys to their business over to Amazon, distributors, and retail partners and hoped for the best. The result? Margin erosion, lost customer relationships, and zero visibility into who’s actually buying your products. It’s time to...

This week Andy and Brian speak with Denise Foley, ULE Group's EVP of eCommerce, about what B2B companies can learn about merchandising from their B2C counterparts.   Brian and Denise both have extensive B2C experience and this conversation dives into what merchandising best practices they learned in consumer businesses that they've brought over to the B2B side of the world.  And Andy questions whe...

This week, Brian and Andy (and Jared) talk about the events they attended last week.  Brian and Andy joined B2B Online in Chicago, where they heard so much (maybe too much?) about AI.  Jared headed to IR B2B eComm Conference (mouthful) in Manchester England, where he noticed some cultural differences between European and American teams.

Brian and Andy share a preview of Andy's upcoming book, Bot 2 Bot: The New Future of B2B Commerce, a deep dive into how AI is transforming B2B buying and selling. Andy shares the book's central thesis: that AI adoption in B2B is already outpacing B2C by a rate of 3 to 1, and that AI agents are expanding outward from data-heavy "middle mile" functions like pricing, quoting, and order management tow...

Andy and Brian dig into a topic we haven't tackled in a while (and frankly, we haven't heard much about in a while): should companies own their own marketplaces? And for the first time in a while, the guys disagree. (Hint: don't ask Brian to fund your marketplace). Plus, what can we learn from Andy Jassy's shareholder letter?

This week we're joined by fellow Master B2B guy Jared Blank to talk about the most overhyped and underhyped ideas in B2B.  And because everything is AI nowadays, AI somehow shows up on both lists.  Because of course.  But we also talk about alternative payment methods, product data and GEO, all of which may be underhyped.

This week, Andy and Brian bring on Master B2B's Chris Germann to talk about how AI is impacting practitioners' relationships with their system integrators.  What were those companies providing that no longer need to be done by an outside firm?  Where should manufacturers and distributors lean on SIs now for help?  And Andy gives some advice to SIs: "If you haven't figured out how to make data a st...

Andy and Brian share some of their insights from a Master B2B Summit roundtable, where practitioners shared where they will spend the next dollar of their budget.  Yes, execs talked about measuring the ROI of their investments and customer experience, but they also offered some surprising thoughts on where they plan to invest this year.

Andy and Brian spent the week with their B2C peers in Las Vegas at the Shoptalk event, and they came back with some fascinating insights into how B2B and B2C differ in their approach to eCommerce and 5 ways that they're actually more similar than they thought.

This week, Andy & Brian discuss whether all of the AI tools we're using at work are actually making us more productive or whether they're just increasing the output of maybe-just-slightly-better-than-average deliverables.  And how can we avoid getting into the AI rabbit hole where we go to start one quick task and end up in a 2-hour conversation with an LLM?

This week, Andy and Brian share their key learnings from the 2026 Master B2B Mindshare Summit held this week in Chicago.  Whether you were there - or just wish that you were - you'll get a taste of what participants learned at the event.

This week, Andy and Brian speak with Ntara's CEO, Andy Didyk about how organizations are working with their product data to ensure it's being discovered by LLMs.  As Andy Didyk says in the interview, companies are finding that they have hidden data troves that are powering their AEO/GEO efforts. This episode is also a preview of a session that the three of them will lead at the Master B2B Mindshar...

On the Friday 15, Andy & Brian talk to Optimizely's Trevor Pope about whether practitioners should think about AI initiatives in terms of their impact on costs or their impact on revenue. (You might be surprised to hear that it can be both...) Master B2B Summit Master B2B Forum

Andy and Brian are joined by eCommerce expert Howard Blumenthal to talk about how companies should think about the value of their AI initiatives.  Howard lays out a useful set of questions for preparing for new AI projects: Are we looking at the right workflows for AI? Are we measuring the right things? Is our data ready? Do we have a governance plan? Plus, learn how B2B eCommerce leaders are appr...

Andy and Brian are joined by Andy Goodfellow, SVP and Chief Technology Officer at Zoro, to discuss why there has historically been friction between the IT departments and eCommerce teams at so many companies.  Goodfellow shares how Zoro turned this dynamic on its head by aligning everyone on a singular goal - creating value for the end customer.  Plus, he gives some great advice about not confusin...

Andy and Brian talk with Rob Howl, the Vice President of Digital Products and Experience at HVAC parts distributor mSupply about how the company is approaching building out Answer Engine Optimization capabilities. Rob discussed the framework called EAT - Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness - and using that to guide how the company thinks about changing its approach to product informat...

Building trust with your customers was difficult before AI began hallucinating information about your products.  So how can companies overcome that challenge?  It comes down to transparency, consistency and honesty.  Andy and Brian discuss best practices for bringing those traits to your organization.

Is AI becoming an oligopoly? Apple just paid Google $1 BILLION for AI technology, admitting Apple Intelligence failed. This changes everything for B2B commerce. In this episode of Master B2B Friday 15, Brian Beck and Andy Hoar break down the emerging AI oligopoly and what it means for B2B e-commerce leaders.  KEY TOPICS COVERED: Apple's $1B deal with Google for Gemini AI (and why it matters) The P...

We're joined by Kevin Stone, Senior Vice President of Technology & Procurement at Motion Industries, to talk about how AI has changed the hiring process. While it's gotten way easier to create the perfect resume when applying for a job, it's gotten equally more challenging for hiring managers to figure out whether what's on a resume actually represents a candidate's experience. Kevin walks us...