Digital | Supply Chain | E-Commerce
Demands on supply chains are ever increasing as companies vie to deliver more personalized products, with faster lead time, at a lower cost. Further, unexpected execution conditions continually disrupt operational performance.
Continue reading “Sense and Pivot Supply Chain @ MIT Media Lab”
I held a podcast this week with Supply Chain Management Review on the topic of AI in Planning.
Continue reading “AI in Supply Chain Planning – Podcast”
Last mile home delivery is a key driver shaping the growth of the US online sales. While efficient and innovative delivery models abound for parcel products, large format product categories such as white goods, furniture and large electronics remain stuck in an ineffective and inefficient supply chain model, preventing their full potential growth.
Continue reading “The Future Model for Big Box Last Mile Delivery”
With escalating pressures to continually provide innovative offerings and demonstrating sustainable, profitable growth, it’s no surprise that product outsourcing success is becoming a strategic topic in Consumer and Retail. For example, Coca-Cola is transforming their traditional fountain machines for consumer engagement. Peapod is taking the store front to where consumers are through mobile commerce technologies. And Rebecca Minkoff is changing the store experience with digital interactivity.
Continue reading “Product Outsourcing Success in CPG & Retail”
As global markets become more complex, companies are increasingly pursuing collaboration to unlock value chain efficiency and agility. From joint demand planning to asset sharing, companies are seeking to unlock cross-firm economies of scale and scope.
Continue reading “Collaboration: Lessons from Medieval Trading”
Business is often seen as war and statecraft. Take for example how we describe numerous management terms such as competitive positioning, stick vs. carrot, or war-gamming. If business is war then merger and acquisition, would be analogous to the capture and annexation of new principalities. In both scenarios, the acquirer must manage institutional complexity, cultural resistance and political machinations to unlock economic value.
Continue reading “The Prince and Insights in M&A Success”
Emergency room (ER) physicians constantly make critical decisions with limited information and under extreme time pressure. What separates best-in-class ER physicians from the pack is that they not only “do the right things,” but also “do things right.”
Continue reading “Procurement success under time pressure”
The term “strategic outsourcing” may sound like an oxymoron. Traditional dogma of outsourcing calls for companies to sequester strategic capabilities in-house and only source non-core or commoditized capabilities from 3rd parties. The situation becomes more complex in a dynamic market context since (i) what may be deemed a core competency today may become peripheral tomorrow and (ii) firms may increasingly find a deficit of in-house critical capabilities and know-how as they react to new markets and consumer changes. One key implication is that outsourcing must recognize and anticipate the underlying industry structural trends (consumer, technology, macro-economic) that can unexpectedly change a firm’s value chain capabilities landscape.
Continue reading “Strategic outsourcing is not an oxymoron”
In the past decade(s) the pharma industry has experienced an innovation gap crisis characterized by relatively flat growth rate in new drug approval rates and a steady growth of 2.5X in cost. Continue reading “Drivers of Pharma R&D Gap and New Models for Success”