Idea 8 - Channel management We hear a lot about discontinuous change these days. It first cropped up in catastrophe theory, which may give pause for thought, but business thinkers and economists like the way it describes the quantum leap - the radical shift that makes everything look different. They also like how it (eventually) boosts growth, far more than incremental change ever does. Some of the most powerful discontinuities of the last century or so have been the coming of the horseless carriage, powered flight, the personal computer and now, dot.com bust or no, of the Internet. The Net has forced anyone running a business to reconsider exactly how they market, sell and distribute their products. And that boils down to some serious thought about channel management. Distribution Channels are a business's routes to market, part of the 'place' in the four Ps of marketing. In considering the four Ps, managers must make decisions on how many levels of distrib...