Tag Archives: Supply Chain Management

Social Media and the Supply Chain

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As I was looking through my normal round of websites this morning, an article caught my attention on mycustomer.com. The article was called “B2B Firms Reaping Supply Chain Benefits from Social Media” by Natalie Brandweiner. This article discusses how B2B firms need to leverage social media to support their supply chain.

Being a B2B marketing professional supporting a sourcing/supply chain consultancy, I have found leveraging social media to be an interesting process. I have done my research, taken classes, gone to seminars, etc., but there does not seem to be a straight forward plan on how to best leverage Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. And with new tools launching every day (Pinterest) it appears that the journey is just beginning and the path to social media success will be different for each company.

To see how social media is working for B2B, I jumped over to the blog Social Media B2B and checked out their blog post titled “Only 13% of B2B Marketers Drive Leads with Social Media” by Jeffrey Cohen. The post states that in a survey conducted by BtoB Magazine only 13% of respondents reported that social media was their greatest driver of leads. It seems that we all are still trying to figure it out.

The numbers stated by BtoB Magazine seem to be supported by Brandwiener’s article. The article states that in a survey conducted with 150 B2B customers, half of the respondents were unaware of how their supply chain providers use social media or thought they were not using social media at all. However, one third felt that they would perceive their supply chain vendors more positively if they used social media to engage with them. Forty percent of the respondents use social media regularly. Six out of 10 say social media sites are a valuable way of interacting with supply chain vendors (Facebook 57%, LinkedIn 30%, and Twitter 15%).

It looks like there is an opportunity here for supply chain vendors to better leverage social media and enhance customer experience and engage others. The article quotes Janet King from IDG Research Services as saying “The research shows that while the use of social media channels to interact with customers is still developing, vendors who leverage these channels can have a fairly significant impact on customer perceptions.

“Opportunity exists to engage with customers not only on mainstream services like Facebook and Twitter but through private communities, vendor wikis and blogs. Engaging with customers through these channels helps vendors to not only inform the buying decision but join the conversation.”

It appears that we are missing an opportunity to engage with our community on a deeper level. This is an exciting time not just for marketing but for supply chain as we navigate this new world of building relationships through social media. How are you making it work for you? Do you use social media? How do you use it?

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Who is the First Person You Should Hire (Part Deux) – Lutts and Mipps?

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A question that has been asked repeatedly after my last post is related to asking the right questions so I thought that instead of responding individually, I would use this week’s blog post to respond to it.

Those that have been through the Decision Making or Change Management training with The Mpower Group may well remember the experiential learning simulation called Lutts and Mipps. In essence, teams are handed lots of answers related to a classic time/distance/speed problem. The only challenge is dealing with Lutts and Mipps instead of miles and hours to put the participants in a different context. In addition, the teams are provided with way more information than they need. The challenge is in identifying that they were given two of the variables and they can easily solve for the third, in a total of about 45 seconds – IF THEY ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS! Invariably, there are many teams who never get to the answer in the allotted time(45 minutes) let alone the “solvable” time which is under a minute. And the ones that fail the most miserably? Glad you asked. It’s always the overly analytical types who start gathering the data and crunching it with all kinds of wild formulae. They are also the ones who insist that we must not have given them all the data that they needed! And this is after we have just finished a module on problem solving thinking!

We have been trained and trained and trained to gather as much data as possible and start crunching all kinds of analyses with that data – without determining the Key Questions we must address to arrive at the answer. And this rush to action is nothing but a fool’s errand. We would be far, far better served to make sure that we take the time at the beginning to make sure that we fully and deeply comprehend the question(s) we are trying to answer. Otherwise, how will you know that you are capturing the right data, the complete data, no extraneous data etc. etc.? Which is really what my two friends Pete (Drucker) and Al (Einstein) were essentially saying. And we have proven time and again to many of our clients that determining the right Key Question(s) is a critical and an absolute necessity. Unfortunately, we have all been conditioned to jump into action and time spent in reflection is often viewed as an unnecessary delay. Ironically, that reflection time and developing the right Key Questions and getting consensus on them is a powerful accelerator. And oh by the way, if you follow a structured methodology to develop the Key Questions, it is also a significant Change Management enabler as it builds tremendous credibility with your most reluctant stakeholders. In addition, it enables you to logically structure your argument and essentially serves as a blueprint for your presentation. Furthermore, you can also employ the technique of a reverse hypothesis to completely disarm your most stringent and die hard resistor(s)e.

I cannot begin to tell you the level of frustration that Lutts and Mipps generates in our workshops (which have included CEOs, EVPs, etc., etc.). This is clearly not an issue that distinguishes between seniority. Most people are pretty dumb founded when they realize that they wasted the entire allotted time when they could have had the answer in 45 seconds – if you invest the 3-4 minutes needed to develop the Key Questions. I wish I could show you some of the bizarre answers we have received from teams. How about your organization? How often does it take the time to make sure that it knows what the Key Questions are? And if not, do you think it should? If you would like to know more about any of the concepts mentioned in this post, give me a jingle.

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Trends of 2012 – A Marketers Perspective

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On this snowy Thursday, I wanted to expand on Dalip’s blogs on trends from last week. As the head of marketing, I am looking at trends to better understand how I can better serve my company and the company can serve the market.  I have realized that being in marketing is similar to working Supply Chain Management (SCM) in many ways.  We are always trying to show value and get buy-in from the rest of the organization. Both marketing and SCM are trying to get the maximum amount of value out of their budgets while providing the best service possible to the organization as a whole. So I wanted to look at the trends in a different light and see how the same trends affect marketing and SCM.

The first trend that struck me is people’s focus on buying local. This is a trend that started years ago, but I think it is starting to pick up more steam. With “Buy Local” signs showing up in shop windows and the push to support small businesses, the word Mass in Mass Marketing is becoming a thing of the past. People want a more authentic feel. For marketing this means that messaging needs to have a community focus. Target markets are now hyper focused with large advertising campaigns being used to reinforce this message. For SCM, this means that buying local might become a strong consideration when making decisions.

This rolls us right into another key trend: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It seems that people are looking for a change in the way companies behave. The socially conscious companies are the ones predicted to make a splash in the next few years. CSR is very important when looking at what marketing messages to get out to the public. Of course you can’t just say that a company is socially responsible.  Actions speak louder than words, and CSR has to be shown in the way the organization behaves. Brands need to be associated with a cause. And marketers need to be careful that it does not come off as gimmicky and disingenuous. Consumers see right through what is authentic and what is fake. What does this mean for SCM? It means, once again, that there is a different lens when looking at what to buy for a company and making sure that the purchases are in line with the larger CSR goals. In addition, gathering around a cause is a great way to build a team environment and attract new hires as they consider CSR a determining factor when looking at companies to join.

Our third and last trend focuses on technology. It seems that you can’t escape the call of information and the Internet. Some are detoxing, but technology is so engrained in who we are that it is hard to leave the house without a laptop, tablet, or phone (I know my iPad and iPhone are never too far away from me at any given moment). This means that the way people are getting information is continuing to evolve. For marketers this means that your messages must be accessible to whatever device or social media platform people are using. A website can no longer be created without understanding how it will look and be navigated on multiple platforms. Keeping up with Social Media trends is a fulltime job in and of itself. For SCM this means that the way things are bought is changing. With online reviews and more interactive websites, buyers can now make more informed decisions. This can cut down on the time it takes to make a decision and negotiate prices as more information is available at any given time.

It is easy to sit back and look at these trends and plan about what actions to take. However, you can get stuck in the typical analysis / paralysis trap. The key however is to stay flexible and to stay educated. Both marketing and SCM are facing the same challenges. It is important to keep learning from each other as we navigate through this ever-changing environment.

Do you think SCM and Marketing have more similarities than differences?

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Why 2012 is Not the Year to Fear

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While predicting trends has sometimes been associated with parlor games, there are some trend spotters that we all should at least make ourselves familiar with.  Especially those that have a very good track record and clearly Marian Salzman is one of them.  By applying pattern recognition, they have been trendspotting for many years with a stellar performance.  We thought we would take some of the trends that might be most relevant to our community and start a discussion of their impact.  We would strongly encourage you to find the time and go through their entire report and make up your own mind also.  I promise a fascinating read.  I will discuss 5 today and 5 tomorrow.

EMERGENCE OF AFRICA AND LIPSTICK POLITICS: – They cite a number of trends (emerging middle class with high expectations, a much younger demographic, income disparity, culture clash, cheap smart phones etc.) and each one of them needs to be understood.  Clearly, this is an area that has the potential to be a major source of supply (materials, talent etc.) but also a very high growth market.  Early adopters have already starting to enter this huge segment of the world.  Look at the strategic investments that China has been making here for years.  The most fascinating trend was the emergence of women in roles of political power in Africa.  This will have a very fundamental, extremely positive effect on society and political/economic decisions on the traditionally male centric cultures.  By the way, we would include the Middle East for most of this discussion.

Value Opportunity:  Prepare a comprehensive strategic report on Africa and circulate it amongst your client base.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY/EVERYTHING “ECO”: According to the research, this is no longer a fad but permeates everything, especially for the younger generation – as workers, as consumers and as citizens.  Social activism is here to stay and corporations are quickly figuring out that CSR is no longer a nice thing to do but a necessity to stay competitive and survive.  Tied to that is the entire eco movement and these combined are having an impact on fashion, food, travel, packaging etc. etc.

Value Opportunity:  Ensure that CSR/ECO issues are incorporated in your process and are real decision drivers that clearly impact value.  Engage with your supply base to drive home the importance of this to you.

INTERNET OVERLOAD: The “Facebook” phenomena may be at a cusp – GASP!!  People are getting quite tired of being “tethered” 24/7.  They are tired of information overload and decision fatigue.  Internet addiction is a real issue.  Too much information sharing and the insatiable need to keep your information current is becoming quite a chore.  People are reporting drug withdrawal like symptoms in experiments.  I don’t quite think we’re at a Gladwell-like Tipping Point but clearly at a pause where people are slowly re-evaluating their relationship with technology.

Value Opportunity:  Make sure you have some kind of Knowledge Management strategy that incorporates this issue.  TMI is worse that not enough information and it can lead to action paralysis.

BRIC or BRIIC: Indonesia???  Yup – Indonesia.  One of the fasted growing economies and one that Marian and her team suggest should at par with the BRIC countries in importance.  Please see the section on Africa above for some of the same logic.  In addition, “new Credit Suisse report29 stating that “[t]he rise in personal wealth in Indonesia has been stunning since the year 2000, with average wealth growing by a factor of five.”  With that kind of explosive growth, it is clearly going to enjoy a significant surge in economic activity.  Oh by the way, it also happens to be the largest Muslim country in the world so looking at it as a supply source or market means fully understanding a set of cultural dynamics that are going to be relatively new for most of us(can you say Halal?)

Value Opportunity:  Make sure that your organization fully understand Indonesia as an arbitrage opportunity with a particular emphasis on cross cultural dynamics

SHOPPING GOES VIRTUAL:  We all know about Black Monday and increase in online sales but with technologies like Kinect, shoppers can now try many different outfits online and shop accordingly.  Price comparing apps are putting more and more power in the hands of the consumers.  Social networking also means that consumers can now exchange information and unite in providing feedback to the provider and that is changing the power dynamic in the market.  Amazon’s club means that delayed gratification is being eliminated as a constraint to onl9ine shopping.  All of these trends are fundamentally changing the way we shop and therefore will have a profound impact on supply chains.

Value Opportunity:  Highlight the impact of this trend on your business and start examining the supply chain for future fit.  For example, the supply chain from warehouse to store may have to dramatically change to warehouse to customer?

 

Which trends do you think are most likely to come true?

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Check back tomorrow as I list the next five.

Regards,

Dalip

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Succession Planning – Where the Present Meets the Future

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I’m sure you expect us to say this but it’s worth repeating: Succession Planning has to be part of an overall Competency Based Talent Management (CBTM) strategy. We start with the basic premise of Succession Planning which is ensuring that you have sufficient qualified bench strength for key roles in the future.  This means that you need to know what your key roles are and the competencies you need so you can determine if you have qualified candidates.  By the way those competencies need to be defined for the future, not today.  All of this requires a CBTM strategy to ensure that you have managed the significant risk of not having the right talent when you need it.  To further illustrate this point, your Succession Planning process will need to be tightly integrated with your recruiting process to ensure that the right types of competencies are being used to select potential candidates.

If you truly believe that your people are at least one of your critical assets, then why would you not manage your risk of replacing those critical assets, especially when these assets can walk away at will and there really is no expected life of that asset for you to plan around?  It would seem to me that the risk of replacing these assets is far greater than any other asset in your organization?  Yet we continue to absorb that risk without any mitigation plan?  And this is not a risk that you should pass on to your HR partners to manage on your behalf.  You should lead this just as you would your overall CBTM strategy and actively use your HR partners as consultants.  Please do manage your expectations in dealing with your HR department as most of them are not geared up for this kind of work yet.  You actually will be leading them in some cases and become the test bed and leader for the rest of the company

Successful Succession Planning necessarily starts with an understanding of what your future competency needs are for key roles and then designs a strategy that encompasses both an internal and external sourcing process.  While some of the “high potential” programs do an adequate job of at least identifying some of the replacement candidates, even fewer have a pro-active process in place for their success.  “High potentials” cannot be a replacement for a Succession Planning strategy within the context of CBTM.  A comprehensive understanding of your company’s long term business strategy is critical to knowing what your future competency needs are going to be.  If your company is going to be much more active in the global market than it is today, then your Succession Planning strategy of replacing Joe, who is your most critical employee today with Joe’s competencies, will expose you to significant risk.  And if those competencies are not present in your organization, then you will have to start developing them internally and acquire them externally to manage your overall risk.

Let me try and conclude the conversation with some quick summary thoughts on a very complex issue.  Succession Planning:

  •  must be part of an overall CBTM strategy  -  the core of that and the first step is a competency model for the future tightly integrated with your company’s long term strategy
  •  must be approached as managing significant risk of a critical asset and therefore sponsored at the highest levels and directly led by you, not HR
  • cannot be replaced by a “ high potential” program
  • must incorporate both internal and external sourcing strategies
  • is not a periodic event but an integrated, pro-active, ongoing process
  • has a retention programs as a  key component

A successful Succession Plan as part of an overall CBTM strategy is key to sustainable value creation.  It also will position you as an innovative leader in your company and position your organization as adding value beyond the confines of a narrow functional definition. Your organization will also be looked at as a leadership factory where other executives come to pluck the best candidates to seed their organizations.

If you are interested in getting involved or would like to follow this topic further, here are a series of critical activities coming up:

  • Major research project geared towards not just identifying the problem but to identifying Next Practices to solve the problems
  • White Paper to focus on Next Practices in Competency Based Talent Management
  • A webinar discussing our findings in detail

Please share your thoughts and challenges regarding Talent Management below. We would love to hear your insights.

Regards,

Dalip

Reposted on Sourcing Innovation.

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