by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 15, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain
The sharing of tangible and intangible assets will increasingly become a fundamental feature of successful businesses.
Few developments of late are as intriguing as the rise and disruptive impact of the collaborative economy. In a very short time, services that we may have thought of as permanent fixtures of our business and personal lives have been rendered obsolete by the sudden sharing of tangible and intangible assets in the peer-to-peer, business to consumer (B2C), and business to business (B2B) spheres.
B&B and hostels, car rental, and DVD rental are giving way to peer-to-peer accommodations, car sharing, and music and video streaming. The Marriott Hotel chain used the online platform LiquidSpace to convert empty conference rooms into rentable work spaces for guests as well as outside visitors. Walgreens teamed up with TaskRabbit, an online marketplace for outsourcing errands, to deliver products during flu season. The list is endless.
Rachel Botsman, an innovation strategist who has spent the past four years studying 500 collaborative economy startups worldwide, concludes in Harvard Business Review:
The real power of the collaborative economy is that it can serve as a zoom lens, offering a transformative perspective on the social, environmental, and economic value that can be created from any of a number of assets in ways and on a scale that did not exist before. In that transformation lie threats—and great opportunities.
While consumer sharing may have received the most media attention, Robert Vaughan, an economist at PwC Strategy & Inc., argues the open sharing of resources among businesses may present an even larger opportunity. Although, on the surface, it seems like an unlikely marriage – businesses do compete, after all – a growing number of successful collaborations prove Vaughan is right.
He writes:
In just a few years of activity, it has become clear that the unfettered exchange of otherwise unused major assets, including physical space and industrial equipment, allows a sharing company to operate more efficiently than its non-sharing rivals. Companies that go further still, wholeheartedly embracing the sharing of less tangible assets, may benefit from a different sort of change, one involving their culture, that builds new types of connections with, and sensitivity to, the world outside.
One example of an interesting collaboration involves General Electric and Quirky, an online inventor community. GE and other market giants such as IBM and Samsung file thousands of patents every year, most of which never move beyond the drawing board. The collaboration gives Quirky open access to GE’s patents, allowing for products that normally would not have been put to productive use – such as a smartphone controlled window air conditioner – to be brought to market.
Sometimes a direct collaboration may not even be necessary. A company may choose to place an undeveloped product on an online technology exchange, thereby opening itself to the possibility of building a connection to another company with complimentary expertise.
In many respects, enterprise sharing is still in its infancy and is likely to evolve just like Airbnb, whose concept seemed “fringe” when it launched in 2008 (it was initially marketed as a service for people to stay the night on their air beds in strangers’ homes). Now the company has amassed more than 650,000 rooms in 192 countries and threatens to disrupt not only the hotel industry but the entire hospitality sector.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 14, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain
To see lean perfected – study the NASCAR pit. In a matter of seconds, the pit crew has changed tires, wiped down the windshield, filled up fuel, and given the driver a drink of water. Everything is in the right place at the right time. If only every distribution center would run that smoothly. What’s clear is that mastering inventory levels is central to the equation of eliminating waste, but inventory management is becoming a vexing problem for some organizations – compounded by multi-channel distribution, inadequate demand forecasting, and a lack of communication among appropriate parties.
Taking a closer look at the experiences of forerunner companies in their quests to master lean inventory management might just help your company avoid these top three snags.
Failure to Adapt Business Processes
In an effort to reduce merchandise sitting around on warehouse racks, some organizations take lean too far. The problem, in this case, is one of business process rather than software. While management sees the financial impact of cutting inventory, they tend to pay less attention to how it will affect operations. The heads of distribution quite frequently are not even invited to take part in the decision and find out only when fewer cases and pallets show up at receiving. Adapting business processes to involve the managers of procurement, finance, operations, and sales and marketing, is key to maximizing efficiency. In other words, open up the silo by building it in to your formal and informal processes.
Failure to Collaborate
Even with sophisticated demand forecasting models on hand, input from all parties is needed for an accurate assessment of inventory levels. And although demand forecasting can help an organization plan around high-level “what if” scenarios, it may not always be able to break it down on a granular level or take into account the increasing number of variables associated with multi-channel distribution. Collaboration is crucial.
Failure to Align Objectives
Sometimes the answer to the issue of inventory levels is counterintuitive. Even with lean as the driving force, the notion of optimization cannot be left out. In some instances, it makes sense to increase rather than minimize inventory if it will contribute to lowering your overall supply chain costs. Your business and inventory strategies need to align.
Despite the fact that in recent years the lean revolution has hit manufacturing, many organizations, especially retailers and wholesalers, have yet to apply lean principals. And among those who do dabble in lean, the focus tends to be on suppliers upstream rather than adding value to the end customer. As more and more businesses seek to tighten the management of their inventory in order to increase efficiencies, opportunities to address end customer value will emerge. Paul A. Myerson, professor in supply chain management, identifies store- and distribution operations as prime candidates since that’s where the most waste can be cut. He writes:
Distribution is all about optimizing the trade-offs between handling costs and warehousing costs, and maximizing the warehouse’s total cube—utilizing its full volume, while maintaining low materials handling costs and minimizing travel time.
Mastery of lean management principals will come for companies that are both successful in identifying new efficiency opportunities within their existing supply chain and navigating around the pitfalls of businesses that have instituted similar inventory management techniques.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 13, 2015 | Big Data, Blog, Data/Analytics, Strategy, Supply Chain
Analytics is good for business — as long as you can make sense of it.
Does your business suffer from a case of data overload? Or do you steer clear of new investments in supply chain analytics because you are afraid they could yield more data than your business can handle? You are in good company.
Several recent surveys indicate companies either are wary of advanced analytics tools or say they have failed to leverage the technology. The issue does not seem to be a lack of knowledge of its existence or potential impact — end users are generally well informed — but how to absorb the data effectively and apply it across the entire organization.
According to a Telematics Update, for example, vendors would be wise to spend less time on their sales pitch and more time presenting the data in a digestible format, ensuring compatibility with the end user’s legacy systems, and aligning the solution with the end-user’s key performance indicators.
The challenge is also captured in an Accenture survey in which only one in five companies said they are “very satisfied” with the returns they have received from analytics. And it’s not for lack of trying. Two-thirds of companies have appointed a chief data officer in the last 18 months to oversee data management and analytics, while 71 percent of those who have not created such a position plan to do so in the near future.
This passage from Accenture’s survey report hits the nail on the head:
Companies wanting to compete more aggressively with analytics will move rapidly to industrialize the discipline on an enterprise-wide scale, redesigning how fact-based insights get embedded into key processes, leading to smarter decisions and better business outcomes.
Most organizations measure too many things that don’t matter, and don’t put sufficient focus on those things that do, establishing a large set of metrics, but often lacking a causal mapping of the key drivers of their business.
As the survey suggests, the move away from an isolated approach to an integrated cross-functional model may be the key to squeezing the most out of supply chain analytics. According to Deloitte, the key to delivering strategic insights is creating a single authoritative data set from which all business units can draw information.
However, only 33% of the Accenture survey respondents said they are “aggressively using analytics across the entire enterprise.” Instead, highly customized data is often collected for units within the organization. A spending forecast by procurement may look nothing like its counterpart coming out of logistics. The inconsistency in reporting makes it hard to share the knowledge, and that takes us back to square one: lots of data and little useful information.
Jerry O’Dwyer, a principal with Deloitte Consulting, summed it up this way in a 2012 post:
If you are performing analytics in different areas of the supply chain — for example, spend analytics or demand planning — you may be missing opportunities that an expansive approach can yield. For companies of all kinds, in-depth supply chain analysis offers an opportunity to create increased value throughout their operations.
Let’s hear it: What do you think companies need to do to put analytics to effective use?
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 7, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
With LinkedIn claiming the top spot for social networking professionals, there’s a good chance you already access the social network regularly. But what you might be missing on LinkedIn could be the key to unlocking more business opportunities.
Allow me to explain. There’s been a lot of talk about the impact social media is having on business sales. And for good reason – last year, the total amount of sales that could be tracked to social networks hit $3.30 billion, up 26% from 2013’s $2.62 billion. A growing number of companies are realizing there’s more opportunity than ever to use social platforms as lead generation and prospecting tools. When it comes to LinkedIn, reports suggest that users who command a deeper understanding of the social network’s capabilities reap far greater benefits than those that still view LinkedIn primarily as a job search tool.
One of LinkedIn’s best features for driving new business leads and opportunities is LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn describes their Group feature as a “place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.” Essentially, it’s an online community where you can connect with industry peers and like-minded professionals (read: prospects and leads).
Never tried Groups before? Here’s a quick guide to get you up and running so you can start prospecting and finding leads today. As a prerequisite, you should already have an active LinkedIn account. If you don’t, start here.
Find Groups
To start, let’s take Groups out for a spin. From the homepage, navigate to the search bar at the top and click on the tab directly to the left on it. Drag down to “Groups”, then, type in a subject you’re interested in (e.g., marketing, sales, baking, etc.). You might notice that when you do a search, LinkedIn also provides suggestions not only on “Groups” but in several other categories such as “Connections,” “Companies,” “Features” and “Skills.” Once you’ve used your keyword to narrow your search, find a group that best matches what you’re looking for.
Cast a Wide Net
Once you’ve selected your group, join it. You may have to request membership approval if it is a private group. While there’s no limit to the amount of groups you can join, the sweet spot for lead generation is to join groups that are outside your industry or function that might help you grow your business. If you’re a small (and growing) 3PL, for example, don’t just industry groups, expand your network by joining groups for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Commit to Building Your Network
Set aside some time each week to connect with five current or former business colleagues. LinkedIn makes it easy by providing suggestions based on your current connections and places of employment. More connections equal more opportunities for discussion about your company’s products and services.
Answer like a Pro
Use the Answers section within your groups as a place to showcase your expertise. Set a goal to answer at least two questions per week. After actively participating in a group for at least two weeks, start your own discussion within the group. Engaging industry peers in a rich dialogue is a great way to build trust and confidence among members of your new group. Turning your question and answering activity into leads is a long-term strategy, but one that can prove successful as people will begin to look at you as an expert and leader in your industry.
Practice Consistency
The key to generating leads via LinkedIn is consistency. Steady participation in your groups is the secret is to building relationships that will pay off in the end. Take some time to determine what’s working in your strategy and refocus your efforts as necessary, but always, always be consistent in your participation. In the end, it’s your activity that is going to set you apart from the competition and establish your expertise.
In a recent survey of sales professionals, most reported they were unfamiliar with LinkedIn’s full capabilities, but in the same survey, a little more than a third of respondents reported generating new business opportunities and revenue gains from their use of LinkedIn. It’s clear that the social network holds opportunity for those that recognize – and leverage – the network’s full capabilities.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 6, 2015 | Big Data, Blog, Data/Analytics, Internet of Things, Logistics, Marketing, Strategy, Supply Chain
The battle for competitiveness in the cloud.
In this age of radical transformation for supply chains, top companies are tying together prevailing concepts, like big data and the Internet of Things (IoT), with cloud-based computing. Supply chains are being reimagined as digital networks that track not only physical goods, but also people, data, and money. As such, global technology giants continue to invest heavily in cloud computing.
The Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. recently announced that it is launching its first international venture – a cloud computing hub in Silicon Valley, proving the fierce competition for market share is stiffening both globally and on the home turf. Notably, all five top-ranked companies listed by the 2013 Strategy & Global Information, Communications and Technology 50 study bet their future on cloud technologies. The companies (IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and Cisco Systems) could not, until recently, be perceived as direct competitors, and now they all wield cloud-based portfolios as their competitive weapon of choice.
Analysts note:
The industry leaders are seeking dominant positions, wanting to become the kings of the cloud. As a group, they are putting distance between themselves and the second tier of followers.
For further proof data analytics is driving competition for cloud customers, we can look to a new report by Market & Research that shows data analytics and cloud computing are expected to record a combined growth of 26% annually over the next five years. The implication is that demand is hardly going to lessen as an increasing number of organizations need cloud solutions to manage and store the huge amounts of data that they use to transform manufacturing processes, fine-tune supply chains, forecast customer behavior, and optimize inventories – to name a fraction of potential applications.
And cloud-based computing is even moving the needle of interest in industries that seem inherently averse to making data and information more easily accessible. For example, concerns about data encryption, auditing controls, and transparency have stymied the adoption of cloud-based computing in the financial industry. According to a report by the Cloud Security Alliance, only 28% of American financial institutions have a cloud-based strategy in place, but as a sponsor of the report, Dr. Chenxi Wang, vice president of Cloud Security and Strategy at CipherCloud points out:
Cloud has made solid inroads in this industry with many firms looking to harnessing the power of cloud. There’s plenty of room for growth, particularly for providers who can fill the void for the auditing and data protection controls that are at the top of respondents’ cloud wish list.
Meanwhile, the public cloud services market alone could grow into a $100 billion industry by 2017, according to researcher IDC. Is your business prepared to leverage cloud computing for its supply chain activities? It’s coming, ready or not.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 3, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Talent
In 1983, the year that Chevy Chase loaded his movie family into the Griswold’s station wagon in National Lampoon’s Vacation, Americans took an average of 20 vacation days. Now, the youngest member of the Griswold family is back on the big screen in 2015, this time taking his own family on a vacation. If Americans’ recent use of paid time off is any indication, reports suggest he’ll see a more open road than his father. Plummeting to an average of 16 vacation days in 2013, the time that Americans spend away from work has fallen precipitously over the past decade. And neither workers nor employers are benefiting from this marked decline.
Source: Project Time Off, Oxford Economics, 2014
You Need a Vacation
Occasionally escaping daily routine is central to both the physical and mental health of employees, and taking time off has been proven to boost work performance and productivity. A 2011 Harvard Medical School study found that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity. Ernst & Young conducted an internal study of its employees in 2006 and found that for each additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance ratings from supervisors (on a scale of one to five) improved by 8%. What’s more, retention rates were significantly higher among vacationers.
Wish You Were(n’t) Here
Given that the Center for Economic Policy and Research reports that the United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its employees paid time off, it’s unlikely the use of vacation days will increase without some type of policy reform. With American employers not legally required to give workers either paid vacation time or paid holidays, a high number – 77% of private sector companies offer paid time off and paid holidays as part of employee compensation packages. Not surprisingly, though, as employee wage increases, so does the likelihood that they will receive time off; half of low-wage workers typically receive paid time off whereas more than 90% of high-wage workers receive paid time off.
Unplug and Unwind
Harris Interactive reports that people like the idea of more time off. Specifically, 50% of workers who receive paid vacation time in the top 10 cities in the US say they would be willing to sacrifice a workplace benefit for more paid time off. Ironically, although employees say they want more time off, 57% don’t take off the time they already receive. Each year there are 175 million vacation days which American workers are entitled to which are not taken. Even when employees actually do use their time off, they don’t spend the time unplugged. 47% of respondents in a recent survey by Pertino reported that they feel less stressed on vacation if they can stay connected to the office. The same study found that 59% of Americans regularly work, check email, take a phone call, and do other work related tasks while on vacation. But, aside from increased productivity upon their return, employers have another incentive to encourage employees to unplug while away. The Pertino survey found that 77% of those who work on their vacation do not have access to their office network. Because of this, employees use unsanctioned or unsecured cloud services (32%) and/or bring their work computers and files with them on vacation (35%). Public Wi-Fi hotspots are commonly used by vacationers, creating an opportunity for company data and/or log-in credentials to be stolen.
While there are certainly many factors at play in the 2013 job satisfaction study published by the non-profit research group Conference Board, it’s worth noting that back in 1987, when the average American worker took 20 days of vacation, job satisfaction stood at over 61%. Now that Americans have cut back on days away from the office, job satisfaction hovers slightly above 50%. There’s no definite way to tell if Americans could move the needle of job satisfaction by loading up their cars and hitting the open road, but it’s a good start. Let’s start making vacations work for us.
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a leading management consulting firm. Our firm works with companies to identify and execute strategies for growth and value creation.
Whether it is a wholesale food distributor seeking guidance on how to define and execute corporate strategy; a telematics firm needing high quality content on a consistent basis; a real estate firm looking for a marketing partner; or a supply chain firm in need of interim management, our clients rely on Fronetics to help them navigate through critical junctures, meet their toughest challenges, and take advantage of opportunities. We deliver high-impact results.
We advise and work with companies on their most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, talent acquisition, performance management, and M&A support.
We have deep expertise and a proven track record in a broad range of industries including: supply chain, real estate, software, and logistics.
