Digital | Supply Chain | eComm
Getting fulfillment right is much more mission-critical in a digital enabled, omnichannel setting compared to a traditional brick and mortar retail. (see figure below).
Continue reading “Fulfillment: a Secret Weapon in Omnichannel”
The traditional value chain boundaries separating manufacturers and retailers are starting to blur under a digital, omnichannel setting. Brands are becoming retailers and increasingly playing an active role in the consumer Research – Shop – Buy cycle
Continue reading “Brands are Becoming Retailers”
In 2003, William Gibson wrote a prescient novel – Pattern Recognition – that explored the tension between art and mass commercialization in retailing, among other interestingly speculative themes.
Continue reading “Muji, William Gibson and the Future of No Brand”
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”
I recently delivered a keynote presentation on best practices in omnichannel supply chain with my A.T. Kearney colleagues and Wal-Mart at the National Retail Federation Supply Chain Summit in Dallas. Continue reading “NRF Omnichannel Keynote”
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”
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”
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”
The prolonged US recession and recent increase in income inequality has energized viewpoints challenging capitalism as a sustainable economic model. Some media and pundits have rallied around the Marx ideology that we are beginning to see capitalism starting to unravel itself.
Continue reading “Capital and Wealth … Was Marx right?”
During the 16th century, Spain transformed from a modest European kingdom to a global hegemony. Spain’s success was driven by monetizing innovations in trans-ocean navigation and firearms to appropriate vast quantities of minerals (silver, copper, gold) from American conquest. However, like any mismanaged enterprise, Spain’s disastrous deployment of its new found capital led to its inevitable decline. In short, Imperial Spain made three strategic enterprise building lessons:
Continue reading “Spain’s Colonial Wealth and Enterprise Building”
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”
Take a look at some of the key shows on CNN and one cannot but notice the network’s recent adoption of an explicit “House of Brands” strategy in an effort to better wage the battle for “viewer eyeballs”. Continue reading “CNN and the house of brands strategy …”
The mortgage CDO initiated market crash of 2008 has surprising similarities with the rail road induced market crash of 1873. Both are driven by greed induced risk taking Continue reading “The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same …”