Leadership Archives - Page 4 of 10 - Supply Chain Game Changer™

The Amazon Effect is the New Walmart Effect!

Has Walmart Beat Amazon Using an Omnichannel Returns Strategy?

In 1994, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos read a statistic that the Internet had been growing at 2300 percent annually. He fashioned that changing tide into a business plan that has been breaking barriers across supply chain and e-commerce that has left an indelible mark with the Amazon effect.

Beginning with booksellers, the e-commerce giant has expedited the closure of many retailers and threatens to redefine the standards of shopping in a digital world. Retailers are forced to lower prices, optimize their systems and processes, and reduce profit margins in favor of competition; meanwhile, Amazon continues its trek toward dominance.

Unleash Your Employees’ Ideas to Truly Change the Game!

Ground Rules for Creating a Game Changing High Performance Organization (HPO)!

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?

Trust! The “X” Factor!

6 Reasons Supply Chain Employees Look For New Jobs!

What’s the difference between a productive, healthy, high performing organization and a toxic, destructive, and volatile organization?

Trust! Or rather, the lack thereof!

I have, as have others, joined companies and have taken new jobs based on trust.

I have, as have others, left companies and have left jobs based on distrust.

Trust, and distrust, are more than just “motherhood and apple pie” words.

They are the “X Factor” in determining whether you enjoy or despise going to work every day.

Preparing Business for the Digital Supply Chain! Oracle Interviews Mike Mortson!

Imagining the Supply Chain of the Future!

Mike Mortson was recently interviewed by Oracle as a part of the Oracle Global Supply Chain Influencer program. This article was posted on the Oracle Supply Chain Management blog.

Supply chain professionals are hiking their spending on supply chain innovation—substantially. Ninety-five percent said they plan to spend more this year than last, and 60 percent will spend more than $1 million over the next two years on disruptive technologies such as robotics, automation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

As digital transformation confronts supply chain leaders, Oracle caught up with Mike Mortson of Supply Chain Game Changer to discuss the current state of the supply chain technology landscape—including how the easiest path forward, in many cases, may involve embracing a supply chain-as-a-service model to benefit from cutting-edge technologies and first-rate digital supply chain management skill sets.

Here is the Oracle interview with Mike Mortson.

Augmented Reality (AR) is the Future of Supply Chain!

Augmented Reality (AR) is Set to Transform Retail and the Supply Chain!

Augmented Reality (AR) enables transformational change!

When I started in the distribution space, I was told “…business is simple…cases in, cases out.” Reports were on green bar paper and forklifts were everywhere. As the distribution space evolved, the reports became spreadsheets and forklifts remained very important as they are coupled with the latest and greatest automation.

Supply chain improvements over the last 15 years have been incremental at best. The advances we are making in the supply chain powered by Augmented Reality (AR) are going to be wildly disruptive. The supply chain community that leans into AR and gets it right will come out the clear winners for every perspective: simplicity, safety, quality and productivity.

Struggling with Process Ownership? Is it a Failure to Communicate?

Never Automate a Bad Process!

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.

Seasoned Leadership in Action™ – An Interview with Derek Panchyshyn!

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 Derek Panchyshyn.

Why Do Companies Still Not Have a Chief Supply Chain Officer?

Supply Chain Should Lead the Boardroom … the Coronavirus Proves it!

At Argentus, we’ve long written about how crucial Supply Chain leadership and a Chief Supply Chain Officer is to business strategy. With the myriad challenges raised by COVID-19, we feel confident saying that it’s more important than ever before.

Across industries – and in the wider public – leaders are waking up to the fact that Supply Chains are about more than just moving stuff around. They diversify supplier bases to reduce risk, provide massive cost savings, allow companies to quickly offer new products, and find sources of innovation through closer supplier collaboration.

Faced with external factors like the need for physical distancing, they allow organizations to quickly pivot to different modes of product delivery without sacrificing the brand experience.

A Case Study in Reverse Logistics Optimization!

Reverse Logistics and the Power of Your 3PL!

The application of advanced forecasting and planning methodologies improve inventory management in a critical, high-volume repair and reverse logistics optimization business, dramatically reducing costs and fulfillment cycles while improving customer satisfaction.

When one of the world’s leading manufacturers of personal computers set new goals for its European operations, ModusLink was there to help.

The OEM turned over management of one of the most critical, high-volume segments of its reverse logistics program—the processor business—saving the manufacturer millions of dollars each year; reducing excess inventory; increasing same-day, on-time ship rates; and improving customer satisfaction.

The Supply Chain Control Tower! An Assessment!

The Control Tower – Is Yours Real or Smoke and Mirrors?

Get OUR

EBOOKS HERE

The concept of the “control tower” is increasingly becoming widespread in Supply Chain Management, and Control Tower technologies are a popular topic right within the supply chain community. Every research firm and vendor has their own definition, but all share the common theme of visibility.

A supply chain control tower system is an attempt to make the outside supply chain environment visible to the enterprise, with “end-to-end” visibility being the Holy Grail.

Inventory Turnover Breakthrough … Go Back To The Basics!

Do You Want Inventory Turnover Breakthrough? Define and Manage The Levers!

Get Our

EBOOK HERE

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!

The Supply Chain Detective™: The Case of the Unpaid Invoices!

The Supply Chain Detective ™! In Search of Broken Supply Chain Clues!

The CEO called. “I need you to go down to Mexico right away. They aren’t paying their invoices and suppliers are stopping shipments. Our manufacturing lines are going to stop. I need it fixed right away. Get those bills paid now.”

What on earth was going on? Why didn’t the site just pay their bills? This shouldn’t be a big deal. And this was their problem, and responsibility, not mine. But as with any crisis situation it’s all hands on deck to get the problem fixed.

Little did I realize that while on the surface this seemed like a simple problem, and solution (ie. just pay the darn bills), the reality would prove to be much more complicated. This would be a case for a Supply Chain Detective!

Cutting out the Middleman: The Growth of Direct to Consumer!

What are the Top 7 Trends in Last Mile Logistics?

As supply chains evolve and grow, products are often passed between dozens of hands at factories, shipping vehicles and pallets, distributor warehouses, retail warehouses, shop floors, and delivery fleets. They often travel thousands of miles to go direct to consumer.

And they go through multiple intermediaries, something which has an impact not only on the profit margins, but also on the brand’s ability to connect and communicate with their customer.

With revenue growth remaining a challenge, almost half (48 per cent) of manufacturers are racing to build Direct to Consumer (DTC) channels, with almost all of them (87 per cent) seeing these channels as relevant to their products and consumers.

10 Ultimate Tips for Career Success!

Ground Rules for Creating a High Performance Organization (HPO)!

Success means different things to different people. How you define success or your career is just as important as how someone else defines success.

For our purpose here we are going to discuss 10 Tips for Career success. Even Career success means different things to different people. For some it means constant promotion. For others it is doing the same job but doing it better than anyone else. Still for others it may be just earning a paycheque.

We realize that many of these tips are equally applicable in areas of your life beyond your career. Further we know that there are many, many more than 10 Tips.

But in the interest of helping others as they embark on, or journey through, their career, we offer these suggestions for your consideration, based on a career of experiences, to use as you see fit.

The Supply Chain Detective™ and the Mystery of the Rock Star Boss!

The Supply Chain Detective™: The Case of the Unpaid Invoices!

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™.