![Supply Chain: 4 Essential Year End Questions to Ask Yourself [Infographic]](https://fronetics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SupplychainSMARTgoals-1080x675.jpg)
by Fronetics | Jan 14, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Supply Chain
Don’t start the year without asking these 4 essential questions.
Well, another year has come and gone. Out with the old, in with the new, right? Wait, not so fast. Don’t overlook the valuable information you can glean from conducting a year end review. Use these four questions as a guide to thoughtfully assess the past year. Then, read on to see how a few simple tasks can help shape your best year ever.
1. What were my biggest accomplishments this year?
Twelve months can seem like a long time when you consider everything that happened over the course of the last 365 days. Setting aside some time to review successful projects, notes of thanks from clients, or a particularly positive performance review reminds us what we’re capable of achieving and gives us a renewed sense of accomplishment.
Try this: This year, designate a file folder near your workspace to collect any materials or notes related to your successes as they occur. Doing so will make it easier for you to recall your accomplishments and provide quick access to a list of your achievements – helpful for a healthy dose of motivation or last-minute performance reviews.
2. How satisfied are you with the past year?
Were you successful in meeting the majority of your goals? Do you feel that you worked to your highest potential? Would you have done something differently? What about missed opportunities? Examining what went right and identifying areas for growth and opportunity are powerful exercises that both prevent the recurrence of negative behaviors and reinforce our commitment to our priorities.
Try this: Adding some context to your experiences presents a more accurate picture of your year by tempering unusual highs and lows. Thinking about your experiences of the past year in sum, try to assign a value to your entire year. How would you rate your year on a scale from 1 to 10? 1 to 100? Why?
3. Is my current daily routine structured to optimize time for my priorities?
It’s easy to fall victim to time suckers, especially when they become ingrained into your routine. Has your daily 15 minute coffee break gradually morphed into 25 minutes? Are your 10 minute “headline scans” now closer to 30 minutes? These small, seemingly innocent extensions can snowball into major time loss, causing unnecessary panic as you scramble to meet deadlines.
Try this: The start of a new year is a great time to reset (or rethink) our daily routines. Build activities into your day. If you’d like to continue your now-daily 25 minute coffee break, think about extending your work day by 25 minutes. Feeling like you can’t absorb everything news-worthy in less than 30 minutes? Set your morning alarm 30 minutes earlier so you can arrive to work having already completed your scan of daily headlines. By taking a hard look at where your time is actually going and then spending a few minutes realigning your daily routine with your priorities, you’re intentionally and consciously assigning time to the things you find the most important.
4. What is it that I want to achieve next year?
Each new year brings with it a renewed energy to being our best selves. In order to get started, we need to define our priorities and what our success will look like. Setting SMART goals, or goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely, keeps us moving forward by providing detail and assigning accountability.
Try this: After reviewing your past year, set aside some time to consider what you’ll set out to achieve this year. Create a detailed roadmap to successful completion of your goals.
Use this infographic to help you set, and achieve your SMART goals.
How was your year in review? What were your biggest accomplishments? Are there any goals that you’ll carry over into the new year? Do you regularly set aside time at the close of a year to reflect? We’d love to hear what you do to reset for a new year.
by Fronetics | Jan 13, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
In December 2014 Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey to learn the favorite social media accounts of the logistics and supply chain industries.
Here are the Facebook accounts which survey respondents identified as favorites:
Cerasis is a top North American third party logistics company offering logistics solutions with a strong focus on LTL freight management.
The Supply Chain Blog covers the top trends surrounding the topics of inventory and supply chain optimization. It also provides a weekly news summary for the supply chain industry.
Transplace is a non-asset, North American based third party logistics provider offering manufacturers, retailers and consumer packaged goods companies the optimal blend of logistics technology and transportation management services.
by Fronetics | Jan 12, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
LinkedIn is a must for companies and for professionals.
Profiles, company pages, and LinkedIn groups each serve a purpose, and each are tools which can be used and leveraged by both companies and individuals. With more than 3 million company pages, more than 332 million users (and with an average of 2 users joining every second), and close to 2 million LinkedIn groups determining “the best” can be challenging.
In December 2014 Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey to learn which LinkedIn company pages and LinkedIn groups are the favorites within the logistics and supply chain industries. The results are in.
LinkedIn company pages
Cerasis is a top freight logistics company and truckload freight broker. The company consistently distributes valuable industry content via their LinkedIn page.
Note: Cerasis was also named the best blog of the logistics and supply chain industries.
Quintiq’s vision is to transform the world’s supply chains. One way the company does this is through their LinkedIn company page. The company’s LinkedIn page is updated regularly with content that is valuable and relevant to the logistics and supply chain industries.
Quintiq also uses LinkedIn to attract and identify new talent. There are currently 12 open positions posted via LinkedIn.
Note: Quintiq was also named a “must-follow Twitter account for those within the logistics ans supply chain industries.”
Transplace is a North American 3PL and technology company committed to helping manufacturers, retailers and distributors reduce costs and improve service. The company’s LinkedIn page is a wealth of information for those within the logistics and supply chain industries.
C.H. Robinson is one of the world’s largest 3PL providers. The company provides freight transportation and logistics, outsource solutions, produce sourcing, and information services to over 45,000 customers through a network of offices in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.
The company’s LinkedIn page is a great resource of industry news and insight.
The Apparel Logistics Group, (a division of The Apparel Group Ltd.) provides the fashion and apparel industry with 3PL services . The Apparel Logistics Group offers a wide variety of logistics services and solutions to support customer needs world wide. The company’s apparel services include transportation management, warehousing and distribution, customs clearance management, vendor managed inventory (VMI) programs, and technical support such as EDI.
LinkedIn groups
Procurement Professionals is an open networking group. The group has more than 290,000 members and is one of the best and largest international networking group for all executives, directors, CFO’s, CPO’s, VP’s, procurement professionals, head hunters, job seekers, recruiters, consultants, financial managers, supply chain and sourcing specialists, and buyers and purchasers.
The Supply Chain Optimization Group is a global community, uniting all Supply Chain, Procurement, Logistics, Warehouse, Scorecard, SCOR, Auditors, Continuous Improvement experts, Management Consultants, Program Managers, Executives, Business Owners, Students, Professors, and Engineers.
The group is a central hub for authors books, articles, white papers, podcasts, blogs, events and conferences. Consultants, and thought leaders are visiting regularly to support members in projects, productivity, training, skills development, coaching, mentoring, financials, statistical software, simulation, teams, organizational development, and more.
The Reusable Packaging Association (RPA) is a collaboration between supply chain partners, including manufacturers, poolers, distributors, retailers, educators, and policymakers, to promote the environmental, safety, and economic benefits of reusable packaging.
The RPA leverages its collective voice of industry leading knowledge to advance the adoption of reusable packaging by clearly demonstrating supply chain efficiencies, environmental benefits, ergonomic improvements, and cost advantages to end users in all industries.
The LinkedIn group is a private group.
by Fronetics | Jan 8, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
Social media is driving a business revolution. Companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are beginning to take part in the revolution. Companies within the logistics and supply chain industry are adopting social media as a business strategy – and reaping positive results.
In December 2014 Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey to learn which industry blog is your favorite. The results are in.
The number one blog within the logistics and supply chain industries is: Cerasis
As a third party logistics company, the Cerasis mission is to decrease freight management inefficiencies and to provide maximum hard and soft cost savings for our customers in the process of shipping LTL (less than truckload) or truckload freight and small package freight by providing logistics solutions through our powerful and proprietary web-based proprietary transportation management system, the Cerasis Rater, and integrated managed transportation services.
The Cerasis blog is a wealth of information for those within the supply chain and logistics industries. The blog covers industry trends, educates, explains rules and regulations, busts myths, and has awesome infographics.
Other valued industry blogs include:
by Fronetics | Jan 7, 2015 | Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Supply Chain
The majority of companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are realizing benefits by participating in social media. The social network that provides the greatest business impact: Twitter. A survey found that 95% of respondents believe Twitter to be either “somewhat impactful” or “very impactful” on their business.
What are the must-follow Twitter accounts for the logistics and supply chain industries?
In December 2014 Fronetics Strategic Advisors conducted a survey to learn which industry Twitter account is your favorite. The results are in.
The number one must-follow Twitter account for the logistics and supply chain industries is: Quintiq
Quintiq’s vision is to transform the world’s supply chains. The company’s Twitter account speaks to this vision by sharing and providing industry knowledge and news. Additionally, Quintiq uses to Twitter to engage with others within the industry.
Other must-follow Twitter accounts include:
by Fronetics | Jan 6, 2015 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
The start of a new year generally brings with it a host of resolutions. For individuals finding and landing a new job, or advancing in their current job are common resolutions. For companies, identifying talent, hiring, and retaining great talent are typical goals for the new year.
At Fronetics we work with clients to understand and execute on talent acquisition, performance management, learning and development, and succession management. We also work with clients to design and develop roles and responsibilities, on leadership development, mentoring and counseling, and on performance management and compensation strategies.
Throughout 2014 we have created content focused on talent. Topics have included: networking; how to identify and hire top top talent; and how to solve the supply chain talent crisis. We have identified the most popular talent blog posts of 2014, #1 receiving the most pageviews.
Here are the top talent blog posts of 2014
Kathryn Minshew, founder and CEO of The Muse and The Daily Muse, began a piece for the Harvard Business Blog Network with this sage advice: “Network Your Face Off.” The truth and value of this statement cannot be underestimated. Here are 5 reasons why networking is essential and why connections matter. Read the full blog post.
CrossFitters recognize that good outcomes only come with hard work, and lots of it. For that reason, it generally attracts people who are willing to make sacrifices and go the extra mile to get results both in the gym and at work. If you want to hire top performers who have staying power hire people who do CrossFit. Here are eight reasons why CrossFitters make great employees. Read the full blog post.
The supply chain industry has a talent crisis. The question is: how can we solve this crisis? To answer this question I turned to Rodney Apple, founder of the SCM Talent Group. Apple has worked as a supply chain recruiter for the majority of his 19+ year career within the staffing industry and he has filled more than 1,000 positions within the industry ranging from executive-level in Fortune 500 headquarters settings to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within North America. Apple’s role affords him the ability to witness the talent crisis from the perspective of the industry, the company, and the job seeker. Read the full blog post.
Here’s the thing – the supply chain industry is perceived by those outside the industry as having no “wow” factor whatsoever. If the supply chain industry is going to attract new and qualified talent, it needs a face lift. It is time for the supply chain industry to re- brand itself. Read the full blog post.
Wouldn’t it be nice if great talent looked like Waldo? If great talent looked like Waldo we could simply look at the pool of candidates and be able to identify them by their telltale red and white striped shirt. Unfortunately, great talent doesn’t show itself like our friend Waldo. Given this, how can the supply chain industry spot great talent? Read the full blog post.
Be honest. How does your company approach talent acquisition? Is it viewed as a cost center or is it viewed as a strategic department, crucial to the success and growth of your business? If your answer is the former, it is time to rethink your approach. Read the full blog post.
With more than 240 million active users, LinkedIn is one of the largest social media networks. LinkedIn is an incredible tool for networking and professional development. LinkedIn is also an essential component in a job search strategy. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile is crucial to your success. Read the full blog post.
If the supply chain industry is going to attract new and qualified talent, it needs a face lift. The industry needs to be proactive. It needs to communicate what it is, what is currently happening within the industry, and what is in store for the future. Who is responsible for making change possible? You. Read the full blog post.
After the ball has dropped and after the champagne has been drunk, the New Year will begin. Forty-five percent of American’s will start the New Year with at least one resolution. Whether or not you are typically a resolution-maker, the New Year is a great time to evaluate your career and set goals. Here are nine career resolutions everyone should make. Read the full blog post.
Whining. Just writing the word makes me cringe. Whining is a truly unattractive characteristic. It is unattractive in children and it is even more unattractive when adults partake. One of the reasons why whining is just so unattractive is that it is ineffective and it can make a brilliant leader look like, well, like a blithering child. Read the full blog post.
