Daily Insights, Trends and Solutions for Professionals, Experts, Students and Society
Change Management and Business Process Transformation
We’ve all heard of the need for Procurement to embrace the Digital Procurement transformation for many years.
So why are so many organizations still in the beginning of this process?
Why are industry projections failing to materialize despite ample technological advancements in Procurement?
Continue reading “Procurement Transformation Delays – The Role of Personality!”
Anyone who is trying to make changes will be met with a variety of reactions and responses. This will happen regardless of how important the change is to your Job, your Department, your Function or your Company. But what if you had Executive Sponsorship?
Certainly there will be people who will happily, and openly, be willing to support you and help in any way they can. While this is critical, it is more important to understand that there are those who will aggressively oppose you. They may put obstacles in your way or they will be passive aggressive in their lack of support.
There may be many good reasons that you will be faced with this kind of opposition. However it is incumbent upon you, as the leader, to take all necessary steps to address these issues head on. One technique that can help you and your Company is to solicit and acquire visible and active Executive Sponsorship!
Continue reading “Executive Sponsorship to Enable Change!”
Excellence, or superiority, is often the goal in corporate organizations. Each and every function, within its own right, including Procurement teams, strives for excellence and achievement in order for a company to collectively grow, evolve, and thrive.
Achieving excellence seldom comes easy. Hardships and roadblocks are to be expected taking the road less traveled towards change and transformation, but without daring to create something contemporary, one often settles for commonality.
There is no one answer to success and achievement, but there are parallels that can be drawn between organizations that simply exist, and those that prosper.
Procurement is a function that has long been at cross-roads; dare to transform within people, process & technology, or keep doing what has always worked just fine.
Continue reading “7 Signs of Excellent Procurement Teams!”Amazon is far and away the leader in the E-C0mmerce space. Their growth continues at an exceptional pace. And they continue to expand their products, services, and capabilities. In short they continue to press their advantage and make it difficult for anyone else to compete with them. You need a Blue Ocean strategy!
But if you are in the E-Commerce space that is your reality. Amazon is the biggest shark in the room. So how do you compete in the face of such an overwhelming adversary?
One technique is to consider creating your own Blue Ocean Strategy to create competitive advantage! If you can define dramatically different space in which to do business you may be able to keep this shark, and others, at bay (at least for a period of time).
Continue reading “Competing against Amazon? You Need A Blue Ocean Strategy!”Organizations that are either considered high performing or who aspire to become high performing understand that their employees are their greatest asset. A company can only achieve its overall objectives if their employees are aligned, on board and driving toward those goals, and if their ideas are heard.
At its core your employees understand how well or how poorly the day-to-day processes in your company run better than anyone else. They also have tremendous ideas on how to improve those processes, how to improve your metrics, and how to achieve your objectives.
So how do you tap in to that intellect, unleash those ideas, and empower your employees in an organized and efficient manner? How do you get your finger on the pulse of what is on your employee’s minds?
Continue reading “Unleash Your Employees’ Ideas to Truly Change the Game!”The future of business is digital. It empowers companies with more capabilities, facilitates more meaningful interactions between corporations and customers, and hastens important processes.
However, digital transformation doesn’t come naturally. All these techniques and integrations must be integrated into your business with precision. Any mishaps can have far-reaching consequences, and you could set your company back rather than advance it forward if you fail to prepare properly and in mitigating risk.
Continue reading “Tips for Mitigating Risk During Your Firm’s Digital Transformation!”As we come to the end of our 5th year here at Supply Chain Game Changer it’s time to reflect on the tremendous events of the year.
The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic have continued to stretch far and wide, unabated, touching many aspects of all of our lives. Even the supply of Christmas Trees will be impacted in some fashion by the pandemic due to logistics delays, trucker shortages, and environmental forces.
We would like to thank our incredible followers and readers for the ongoing support. Supply Chain Game Changer is recognized as a Top 10 site globally in Supply Chain, Logistics, and Procurement. We’ve been recognized for global Though Leadership and Influence in Change Management, Supply Chain, Management and Education Technology.
And as we ended the year we published our 1000th article! An amazing milestone representing our extensive library with something for everyone.
So let’s review our Top 10 list articles for the second half of 2021!
Continue reading “Our 2021 Top 10 List! (Part 2)”Does your business struggle with process ownership? Are your process improvements not “sticking”? The failure of an organization to have in place well-functioning process owners is a common occurrence these days.
The root causes (if anyone cares to do a full postmortem) are numerous. We’ve heard it all before; “the organizational structure won’t allow for it”, “incentives are misaligned”, “leaders don’t understand what it takes to be a process owner” etc. I’m sure we can all relate to some or all of these statements.
Continue reading “Struggling with Process Ownership? Is it a Failure to Communicate?”I had accepted a career changing challenge … how to change the company’s Inventory Turnover performance from being perennially worst in the Industry to being one of the best. And I had to do it all within 1 year!
I had seen many very smart people tackle this problem over the years. Yet they all seemed to come up short. Sure they improved some aspect of Inventory levels or turnover but in aggregate these all seemed to amount to incremental, step function changes. We needed game changing results! We needed a game changing approach! And we needed it now!
Continue reading “Inventory Turnover Breakthrough … Go Back To The Basics!”The pandemic saw the restaurant industry face challenges like never before, with most being forced to close for a substantial period and, when allowed to re-open once more, having to operate under new restrictions, ensuring social distancing was being maintained for example.
The crisis forced many restaurants and bars out of business; those that survived often did so by deploying innovative and inventive new systems and ideas to stay afloat.
For the restaurants that made it through the pandemic, things will likely never be the same again. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Continue reading “How Covid Changed the Restaurant Industry!”My plane had just landed. I turned on my cell phone. And almost immediately my CEO called to ask me about my recently hired “Rock Star” boss.
“Have you heard from Rick? Nobody’s heard from him in several days.”
Rick was my new boss, the CPO, a guy that the CEO hired a couple of months before.
“No I haven’t heard from him either. That is very unusual given the incredible pace he set for himself”, I said.
“Ok. Let me know if you hear from him and I’ll do the same.”
Where the heck was he? He seemed to be working 20 hours a day, 7 days a week. All of his direct reports were getting dozens of emails from him at all hours of the day and night. But lately there was nothing. Complete radio silence.
What happened to my new boss? It was a case for the Supply Chain Detective™.
Continue reading “The Supply Chain Detective™ and the Mystery of the Rock Star Boss!”It’s time to air our dirty laundry and our dirty little secrets.
Procurement is a function that is undergoing an exciting transformation in the majority of global value chains; simultaneously, within its own strategy, process, and technology.
This is an exciting time to be a procurement practitioner, as well as a vendor of ProcureTech solutions. ProcureTech is a fast-growing technology category. While it may not be equally as sexy or notable, as MarTech or FinTech, the ProcureTech market has a forecasted CAGR of 9.6% between 2018–2023 (MarketWatch 2020). The market can expect to be evaluated at a $9.9BN industry by 2023 (Banerjee 2019).
Continue reading “The Dirty Little Secrets in Procurement!”Ah yes, the sweet smell of change is in the air. The digital transformation of SCM (supply chain management), more specifically procurement and sourcing functions, is becoming a part of the new normal in business.
Organizations are beginning to hop aboard the technology train en route to their end destination: Innovation City and Top-Line Value Ave. .
Along the way, there will be barriers to a smooth journey, but taking incremental steps towards change will allow organizations to overcome challenges.
Continue reading “Digital Transformation of SCM and Change Management!”
At Supply Chain Game Changer we believe in sharing experiences and expertise from people in every industry and from across the globe. As such we have introduced our “Seasoned Leadership in Action™” Interview series at Supply Chain Game Changer. This interview is with Brad Jackson, Executive Vice President of Supply Chain Management and Device Sales at Rakuten Kobo, now at North West Rubber.
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with Brad Jackson, COO at North West Rubber!”When I was presenting the latest Supply Chain Strategic Plan the CEO said to me, “We’ve already spent millions on Supply Chain! Every process should be working like clockwork. Why do you need more money?”
It was true, to a degree. While I had only recently joined the company it was true that the company was investing over $10 million to upgrade and automate their Distribution Center operations.
My predecessor had spearheaded this investment. The current Distribution Center operations were unable to handle the growth, the change in product mix, and the dynamics associated with rapid fulfillment and online shopping.
But there were some fatal flaws which were at the core of their investment plan. Most significantly they failed to optimize the process first.
As a result they were spending millions of dollars automating a bad process.
Continue reading “Never Automate a Bad Process!”
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