Technology Will Force Change
August 24, 2021
“The products we distribute now will change as much in the next few years as cars did between 1974 and 1984. The pistons are still there but just about everything else has changed,” says Clare Radis, president and general manager of Electrical Wholesalers (Edmonton) Ltd.
Today’s electrical distributor will face extinction if he can’t change with the technology, he predicts. “It will take a new breed of salesmen to see the new electronic and computerized equipment coming along, and a new breed of electrician and technician to handle it. Anyone who does not upgrade himself will be left way behind.”
He wonders if even current sales techniques will become outdated: “Some people think we will do away with salesmen and solicit customers by telephone,” reflecting a commonly held fear that the cost of making sales calls will become prohibitive.
One of the more profound changes will be wholesale transformation of electrical systems in buildings to electronics. He says the need for some materials will be eliminated and fibre-optic telecommunications will mean that mazes of telephone wiring will no longer crisscross interior walls.
Mr. Radis says his company is gearing up for the day when programmable controllers “small enough to put in your shirt pocket” will be used to run the electrical systems of 30- to 40-storey buildings.
Alberta may be the worst market in Canada for an electrical distribution firm to be located these days and “it’s hard to say when things will turn around.”
His company hopes to end its reliance on the very soft commercial and residential sectors by obtaining work in the heavy industrial sector, particularly in the oil sands projects near Fort McMurray.
Source: CEDA: Fifty Years of Service – An Historical Review of the Canadian Electrical Distributors Association, 1934 to 1984, Kerrwil Publications. Please feel free to reach out to us any time if you have great photos, historical anecdotes or perspectives. We would love to hear from you.
