All Supply Chain managers/professionals know it is vital to balance available resources and ensure the benefits are available to both upstream and downstream side of the business.Supply Chain management is often been described as managing the provision of services, in the attached article Daniel J. Flint opens with a great question “how does Supply Chain Management service”.By looking at Supply Chain from another perspective, focus is returned to how SCM fulfils its role rather than what it does. Daniel’s article is a great read for all Supply Chain stakeholders.
Linkedin – a marketing platform for Spammers and Marketeers?.
Has the direction of Linkedin changed from a business-related social networking site to a marketing platform?
Of 20 “Discussions” within one “Sydney professional” group there where four posts that could only be considered Spam, eight were sales promos, one re-directed to a blog and the remainder were re-directs to ‘free’ information on a commercial site. There were in fact zero discussions.
On checking each of the Authors, it was found that the Spammers listed one or no jobs and every discussion promoted the same re-directed link (these were usually about jobs/careers). One of the reasons I had labelled these as Spam was due to the number of supposedly different authors that used the same link and at regular intervals – usually one per day, per group.
The sales promos were either: group members pushing their own product or that of their employer (they usually had “Marketing” in their title.
The remainder of the posts did contain some interesting information but this was very limited.
That said, I am a member of a number of other groups that have not been hijacked to the same extent, in fact one is very much a question and answer group (for MS-Excel) and rarely has promotions on their ‘discussions’ tab rather, promotions are posted on their promotions tab.
But over all, there are a huge amount of sales pitches being conducted via LinkedIn discussions which generates hundreds of unwanted emails being pushed onto the group members.
This is obviously not the fault of LinkedIn itself, instead it is the Group Owner and Group Managers that are allowing this to happen. Your best option once you have joined the group is to send a notice to the Group Managers (Often Managers will not have seen the post), they can then advise the offenders and/or take appropriate action.
Other Groups might as well have been set up as platforms for the Marketeers due the the type and regulatirity of the posts. There is, thankfully one way of remaining in the group and not being bombarded with sales pitches: go into your settings and change the frequency of the digests and emails for each Group to weekly, daily or none.
But if you do find a good Group, make sure you participate in the discussions, or it will degenerate and eventually value adding activity will stop.
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Innovation – a long hard road to a better one.
It does not matter what your profession, there is always the need to keep up to date with trends, new poducts/services and the latest news. While I was doing my own regular reseach I came across an archived article labled Supply Chain-Driven Innovation. It was very interesting reading from six years ago and the message from the author, Kevin O’Marah, is the still the same, basically the Supply Chain Manager must:
Use more data from more sources
Inform more people
Collaborate more
Understand other corporate functions
Expect change
The Havard Business Shool article is found at: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5139.html
It is only now that the Supply Chain is being seen as an equal to the traditional ‘critical’ functions such as Marketing and Finance. Companies are now realising that Supply Chain is also critical and by having the collaboration of, and between the functions, then innovative ideas will happen and overall benefits will be achieved.
I suppose this was bound to happen as the issues of supply have found their way to the top of many an agenda, for example the cost of fuel (freight), the global market place (logistics), the cost of space (storage), the requirements of the customer (demand/procurement), and the impact each has on other functions of the business.
And just as the Supply Chain Manager must understand other corporate functions, the managers of other corporate functions must also understand Supply Chain. And as Marketing is far more than just showing a product to market or Finance computing an EBITDA, so Supply Chain is more than just organising the carrier for a delivery. So it’s good to see there are companies with Supply Chain positions at C-Level.
So the question is: do you see your Supply Chain as just support for other fuctions or as a functionitself that can help build a commercial and/or competitive advantage?
Using Customer complaints to improve your supply chain
Marketing talk about the “better mousetrap syndrome”, it is not a bigger, better, faster mouse trap that customers want – they just want to be rid of the mouse, so too with Supply. Customers just want what they order, when they expect it (or told to expect it).
Many times the message will be heard that customers want a faster more reliable delivery service. So the Distribution Manager will call for a meeting with the Carrier asking they address the problem – now. But by drilling down it is found customers are receiving their orders anywhere between 4-25 days with a gazetted delivery of 6 days.
In fact after talking to the customers, all they really want (as an example) is to get a guarantee that their orders will arrive on day 6, every time and this actually happens.
To achieve this will not entail just talking to the carrier and setting KPIs and exception reports etc, there will need to be a proper Root Cause Analysis carried out. You may find that aside from the Carriers own issues there are delays throughout the process, for example the time it takes to receive and enter an order, the picking schedules in the warehouse, the collection schedules, the availability of stock etc.
There are many ways a company can improve their own Supply Chain without the need to rush out and purchase new systems or equipment. Often it is seeing the big picture, then following some basic steps:
1- Map the Supply Chain
2- Identify the bottle necks
3- Identify a few, appropriate KPIs
4- Put into place an Exception Reporting process (to trigger Root Cause Analysis & Corrective Actions)
5- Use your ‘CAR’ system to record and monitor issues, both operational and systemic.
6- Communicate with all stake-holders: suppliers-staff-customers
Like the Mousetrap, investing in bigger, faster processes and products may not be what is required, it might just be to stabilise what you have and set appropriate customer expectations. A targeted approach such as this will cost less, retain customers and will probably reduce ongoing costs.
The Value of Public Perception on Your Business
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The opponents of climate change do not seem to be as vocal, or numerous as they were. The swing now is on the amount of media attention highlighting how little or how much change the climate is going through.
Whatever the cause or source for the focus on climate change, it has meant that all governments – local, state, national and international – are putting regulations and monitory in place. One immediate benefit from this is that records are now being kept and as any Six Sigma proponent will tell you, it is only then that you can make informed decisions – either way. Without this information it is all emotion and hearsay.
BUT this will not absolve businesses from being aware of perception; a declining public perception will kill profits and eventually the business. I am not promoting or knocking Eviance, (a company that provides Environmental Enterprise Resource Planning software) but they have put out a white paper on this subject “The Value of Public Perception: Transforming Environmental Efforts From Compliance-Driven to Risk Management”.
I like this paper as they are suggesting that following the regulations and making business calculations based on whether to comply or not, is like playing the game from the sidelines. Customers, investors and competitors are now very savvy and review a companies environmental performance – and environmental plans – which means if you are perceived in the wrong light regards your environmental scorecard, you lose.
It is the pro-active steps that are taken regards the environment (not just climate change) that can push a company to the front of the pack. This is a common marketing theme – listen to your customer. Even raising the awareness of customers, investors and competitors that your company is against particular regulations or perceived climate friendly initiatives will damage your reputation.
In summary, any SWOT analysis would indicate that it is in the company’s best interest – including long term financially – to go environmentally friendly, be ahead of the regulations, be perceived as being on the same side as other stake-holders. Yep, the tide is rising and as with the Danish King Canute, no commands or pleading will stop it.
Creativity in Business?
A statement I recently read suggested that problem solving itself was indeed creativity and was similar to producing a piece of art, this solicited a response stating that in todays environment, it was more like painting by numbers.
I think both have a place in the argument about creativity. A good leader will use vertical as well as lateral thinking in proposing solutions to problems (the true artisan), the problem as I see it, most who consider themselves as leaders are in fact managers who (using the analogy in the initial response) are managing by numbers. Yes there is a belief they use ingenuity and imagination to paint the sky light blue when the number says dark blue. But hey, that’s not being creative.
Conversely, rules, regulations and customer’s requirements are not barriers to creativity, if we stay with the analogy of the painter – Cubism has a style (rules) but within cubism there are different problems and solutions. More so if we take different art forms such as sculpture. So the same for business, there are different scopes for problems and solutions, depending on the business and a multitude of other factors.
So, just solving problems is not being creative, but creativity can be used to solve problems. And it is a rare Leader (business or otherwise) that has the self awareness and confidence to allow those in their team to be truly creative and not just filling in the spaces (problems) as expected.
Innovation – Fueled by failure, driven by success.
I am currently reading a book called “Innovation – the Attacker’s Advantage” by Richard Foster, although written and purchased a while ago (1980′s), it is still very interesting reading now that we can travel back to the future, and still pertinent.
Another very good article on Innovation is from Stanford Graduate School of Business on why failure is considered a good thing: Why Failure Drives Innovation.
My personal observations are that people of Mind set-1 (see Why Failure Drives Innovation) rely on systems and procedures to improve what they have in an attempt to continue the success they once had. Yes the tools such as 5S and six sigma and TQM and Lean and …..etc, all add value to the process of improving quality and reducing costs.
But it is the innovators, those that Baba Shiv calls Mind set-2, who are the ones that bring real success. Improving what you have to the Nth degree is all fine and good and does save plenty of pennies. But this is neither sustainable nor effective in the long run – refer to Richard Foster’s S-Curve pertaining to Performance vs Effort (funds).
Take land transport: although humans have used the horse and donkey for a long time it was not until the invention of the wheel around 4,000-3,500 years ago when things really got moving, especially with the advent of the cart and chariot around 3,500 years ago. But things remained slow for a couple of millennium, yes they improved the carts and wagons but they were still limited by the technology of the time. Then came steam during the 18th century and mass transportation began, people and goods being moved all over the country – but restricted to the rail corridor. The next leap forward was the invention of the internal combustion engine by an innovator called Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir – although the automobile was not patented until 1890′s. And now, we have car companies improving the effectiveness, efficiency and aesthetics of the automobile but they are still pretty much the same. The next leap forward is the introduction of the electric car and levitating train.
As you can see, the periods between innovation are getting shorter. But innovation is at all levels, in all industries and in all countries, it is the Innovators who are making the jump, building the bridges to the future, the rest follow, some with eagerness while some dragged and screaming and the rest blindly.
Me, well I can’t wait for the strap-on, Personal Anti-gravity Commuter vehicle. Now that’s a back-pac!
