Although these Montana entrepreneurs haven’t read it yet, they are instinctively following the advice of “The Distribution Trap,” a book co-authored by Tim Wilkinson, Montana State University Billings associate professor of marketing. Wilkinson and Thomas are arguing that the best-selling business books of the 1980s and 1990s could be wrong. That theory, still being taught in business schools, told manufacturers to focus solely on their “core competencies” — such as making a product — and outsource everything else like sales and distribution.
