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”Category: Strategic outsourcing
Product Outsourcing Success in CPG & Retail
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”The 3 Dimensions of Distribution Excellence
What allows certain companies to deliver best-in-class distribution performance while others turn in only average performance or fail altogether?
Continue reading “The 3 Dimensions of Distribution Excellence”Strategic outsourcing is not an oxymoron
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.
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