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 Chris Darbyshire, Vice President of Operations.
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Chris Darbyshire, VP Operations!”Tag: Leadership
Leadership is the essential element in running any and every aspect of any business in any industry.
Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Drew Morgan !
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 Drew Morgan, Director, Global Supply Chain and Procurement at ModusLink.
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Drew Morgan !”Do you have a Freight Management Strategy or are you Spinning your Wheels?
In going door to door trying to sell a Freight Management service, as well as in my experience working in companies, I have had the opportunity to see a variety of ways in which companies, large and small, were managing their Freight and Logistics spend.
Most everyone felt they were doing a good job already. But I’ve seen instances where Freight is one of the top 5 largest expenses within a company. Yet it is managed by one or two people, with no support, and no visibility from upper management.
Depending on the industry your transportation spend can make up anywhere from 1-10% of your company’s total revenue. Aside from the cost impact the service implications of a poor Freight management system are enormous.
So do you have a strategy for managing Freight and Logistics or are you spinning your wheels?
Continue reading “Do you have a Freight Management Strategy or are you Spinning your Wheels?”Stop Your Project From Becoming “Just Another Program”!
Many a project starts off with very lofty objectives. And with a lot of work and a little luck those desired results are often achieved. In every case those results usually have been achieved within a certain timeframe and with a lot of momentum.
Yet once you achieve those goals in many respects the energy and momentum which got you there may start to fade. Yet your work has just begun. The next question that always comes up is whether you can sustain, and further improve, those results.
Additionally if you are trying to drive Cultural Change and long term transformation after a while your initial project may become stale and your participants demotivated or distracted.
To avoid your project becoming “just another program” you need to proactively recognize when your project needs to be reinvented or rebooted to avoid irrelevancy and the back-sliding of your results.
Continue reading “Stop Your Project From Becoming “Just Another Program”!”Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with John Heffernan, Chief Supply Chain Officer at ModusLink!
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 John Heffernan, Chief Supply Chain Officer at ModusLink.
I met John on my first day at ModusLink. He was presenting to the Board of Directors. John was one of the Global Operations Executives for the company. He had complete command of his facts, situation, direction and strategy. He was so knowledgable that his expertise and experience came shining through in everything that he said.
As John and I continued to work together we knew that we needed to make serious, game changing improvements around the world. John and I continued to positively challenge and build on each other’s ideas and thinking. This culminated in the deployment of a phenomenal program and the achievement of world class, industry leading results. We raised each other’s game to the benefit of all!
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™! An Interview with John Heffernan, Chief Supply Chain Officer at ModusLink!”Leadership Techniques To Inspire Your Team!
Leaders and leadership techniques are worth their salt are those who inspire others to be great.
Whether you’re a sales manager or a CEO, bringing out the best in people you work with is key to the success of your organization.
Continue reading “Leadership Techniques To Inspire Your Team!”How Bitcoin Works!
Fortunately, describing what Bitcoin is, and how Bitcoin works, is simple. It’s just about the apps. Stock photographs of gleaming coins emblazoned with tweaked Thai baht icons should not be trusted.
Bitcoin is a protocol and a collection of entirely digital processes. Hundreds of imitators have followed in Bitcoin’s footsteps and culture. Still, the blockchain remains the biggest in terms of market capitalization, a position it has kept over the past decade.” BTC” is another abbreviation for Bitcoin. We’ll switch between these usages in this article.
Continue reading “How Bitcoin Works!”Seasoned Leadership in Action™ Interview Excerpts: Lessons Learned by Global Leaders
Our fundamental objective at Supply Chain Game Changer is to share experiences and expertise and lessons learned. As such we have focussed on curating a wide range of content and resources that will have relevance to anyone at anytime no matter what their needs may be.
We began our Seasoned Leadership in Action™ Interview series in support of our objective to share experiences and expertise. And hearing from Industry leaders in this interview format has proven to be incredibly popular. People want to hear about the experiences of others and lessons learned from those who have been successful in their fields.
With many of these Seasoned Leadership in Action™ Interviews now published we thought it would be valuable to extract excerpts from these interviews along themes, starting with lessons learned.
As such we are presenting our first compilation of excerpts from these interviews which is focussed on Lessons Learned by these leaders throughout their careers.
Enjoy and look for nuggets of wisdom in these lessons learned.
Continue reading “Seasoned Leadership in Action™ Interview Excerpts: Lessons Learned by Global Leaders”Welcome To The Supply Chain Game Changer ™ Blog!
The Supply Chain Game Changer ™ Blog!
Welcome to the Supply Chain Game Changer ™ blog.
The Supply Chain touches all of our lives whether it be in business or personally. No matter what industry you are in or are touched by, all involve the movement of goods, services, and information. So the most efficient functioning of the Supply Chain affects us all. And it affects us in every aspect of our lives whether we are consumers, employees, or business leaders.
With a career spent in Supply Chain I’ve seen many ways of performing the processes involved in managing the Supply Chain. Many of these processes are highly efficient. Yet many more are highly inefficient. Regardless, everyone strives to improve the way things are done. And every experience has been an opportunity for growth.
In this blog I’d like to share my experiences, and those of others, in improving, working in, managing in and being managed by the Supply Chain.
There have been some remarkable achievements and there have been some missteps along the way. However there are lessons to be learned and experiences to be shared in every case. And I hope that this learning and shared experience will be of value as you seek to improve the Supply Chain you are a part of.
On top of that we want to share anything and everything related to Leadership, Change Management, Technology, Procurement, Purchasing, Distribution, Logistics, and much, much more.
Overall Supply Chain Game Changer can serve you as a guide as you do your jobs and as you progress through your career. The issues and challenges that you face will be different for everyone on any given day. There is something for everyone in Supply Chain Game Changer.
Additionally I invite you to comment and send me content. By learning, not only from successes but from failures, we will all be better going forward. There is a wonderful world of people and experiences that we can all learn from.
So again I welcome you to the Supply Chain Game Changer™ blog.
Let’s go!
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Starting a New Job? Be a Positive Impact Player to Succeed!
I have seen many people join a new company and take a new job or leave for another company. While I don’t have the precise statistics it is fair to say that as many as half of the people joining a new company will do well. However atleast half of these people will struggle in their new roles and in their new companies. Many will fail altogether.
What makes someone more or less successful when making such a career move? What are the environmental factors which affect this outcome? And most importantly what is it that the new employee does or doesn’t do that makes them succeed or fail?
Continue reading “Starting a New Job? Be a Positive Impact Player to Succeed!”Naming Your Project Will Rally Everyone To Your Cause!
“I’d like you to join our company. One of the Projects you will lead is our ‘Productivity Initiative’ unless you will be naming your project. We need to transform all of our business processes and culture and improve our efficiencies everywhere.”
Wow! What a great challenge and opportunity to make a difference. But calling it the “Productivity Initiative”? That was as inspiring as watching paint dry or grass grow.
“I’ll do it! But we need to give this Project a NAME. A NAME that will inspire people, motivate people, and capture the essence of the change and cultural transformation that we are looking for. And this can’t be an ‘Initiative” … it has to be an ‘Imperative’ … this is not optional … we have to transform the business and we need everyone to rally around our cause!
Continue reading “Naming Your Project Will Rally Everyone To Your Cause!”International Expansion in Retail (Infographic)
The road to international expansion in Retail has been successfully travelled but it is also lined with a lot of accidents and failures. But is it that easy?
“We are going to expand in to the U.S.!”
I heard this refrain many, many times. The growth and success that a Retailer experiences as they expand in their original, domestic market inspires a level of confidence in the company’s ability to expand beyond it’s geographic borders.
Continue reading “International Expansion in Retail (Infographic)”Driving the Need for Culture Change!
You have determined that something has to change in your company! Customer satisfaction may be low. Employee morale may be in the dumps. Financial results and operating performance may be falling far short of your objectives. You need culture change!
Or maybe you don’t have any of these problems. But you view that your company is performing well now yet it is not well positioned to go to the next level and be successful in the future.
Or it could be any combination of these pressures. Whatever the reason, you have come to the realization that the culture of your company must change to get the results you need!
Continue reading “Driving the Need for Culture Change!”A Tale of Two Companies: Different Quality Management Beliefs!
Company 1
The CEO came in to my office carrying a product and said, “The label is off centre on this item. It has a quality defect.” I responded, “Is that actually a quality defect? Quality is a measure of conformance to a standard, and we have no standards.” The CEO didn’t quite understand the distinction. Certainly the item was mis-labelled. But there was absolutely no Quality management process in the company.
Company 2
I toured all of the company’s facilities around the globe. It seemed like we had a tremendous amount of resource working on quality. But they were spending 100% of their time on inspection. A report subsequently confirmed my concerns. Over 10% of our entire direct workforce was spending the vast majority of their time doing 100% inspection. We had a Quality management system but it’s only principle was to inspect in quality.
Whichever the situation was, proper Quality management objectives required something to change in both cases!
Continue reading “A Tale of Two Companies: Different Quality Management Beliefs!”Want Success? Integrate a Change Work Stream in your Transformation!
The nature of the results you are trying to achieve will determine the type of change you need to create and the work stream to make it happen.
If you are making changes to a very small part of your job then your focus is very localized. If you are leading a project solely aimed at achieving a specific result then your change management focus is somewhat larger. But if you are leading a business-wide long term transformation then you need a comprehensive Change Leadership work stream and strategy.
While there are similar elements in driving change at any of these levels, the broader transformation requires a well thought out, well articulated Change Leadership program to be in place to lay the foundation for, and govern, your transformation.
Continue reading “Want Success? Integrate a Change Work Stream in your Transformation!”