Back in January, Stores Magazine wrote an article on “20 Ideas Worth Stealing in 2013” that had some ideas worth stealing by your Supply Management and Marketing organizations. But were they all worth stealing?

These articles sounded good on the surface, and were also good when you dug in. SI would definitely recommend stealing these ideas if you haven’t already:

• Engage the Whole Customer
  Don’t just focus on products or services – create a blend that meets the customer’s needs with a single solution. If necessary, create an optimized, servitized supply chain.
• Bring Catalogs to Life
  Leading Supply Management organizations integrate catalogs into their e-Procurement systems in smart ways that allow buyers to find the contracted items that meets their needs and acquire them effortlessly and that help Sales and Marketing acquire the technological solutions that will give customers access to leading, virtual, catalog technology for the end consumer that will highlight the benefits and features of the products being sourced for sale.
• Turn Pins into Purchases
  For an organizational user making a purchase of a contracted item through the e-Procurement catalog, it should be as easy as pinning a photo on Pinterest. Similarly, the shopping cart technology on the organization’s e-Commerce website should be as easy to use.
• Reward Smart Choices
  It’s not short term savings that matter, but long term value generation. Spending a dollar today to save two tomorrow is just good sense if you want the organization to be around for the long-haul. Don’t be afraid to tell Wall Street where to go. Their short-term focus is doing irreparable harm to the economy.
• Invest in the Community
  Invest in supply management organizations, research institutes, and educational programs that will train your staff and advance the state of the discipline as well as investing in sustainable community programs that will benefit your customers.
• Location Apps, Location Apps, Location Apps
  At any given point in time, you need to know approximately where your product is. You need this visibility as you need to know as soon as possible that you are not going to get that shipment on time unless you take action. It’s pointless to provide a consumer with a mobile set and product tracking if you can’t even ship the product.

So, in the end, thirteen (13) of the ideas were quite good and may even stand the test of time. Get implementing!

Back in January, Stores Magazine wrote an article on “20 Ideas Worth Stealing in 2013” that had some ideas worth stealing by your Supply Management and Marketing organizations. But were they all worth stealing?

These articles sounded good on the surface, and were good when you dug in. SI would definitely recommend stealing these ideas if you haven’t already:

• Meld Physical with Virtual
  This makes a lot of sense. Physical flows should be managed by virtual SaaS supply chain solutions that manage the information flow end to end. And wherever possible, technology that helps the consumer should be integrated into the process as well.
• Healthy Choices
  In 2010 the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reported that 35.7% of adults are obese and 17% of children are obese in America. It’s just the right thing to do. And if you really want to be healthy, push GMO out of your supply chain. Just because you can splice DNA from completely unrelated organisms doesn’t mean you should. We still don’t know what the long term effects of GMO are. For starters, there was a time when lactose and gluten intolerance was rare. Now it’s common. That correlation is too hard to ignore. Plus the increase in cancer rates in countries heavily reliant on GMO food. It’s just an unnecessary risk.
• Right-Size the Footprint
  It’s all about lean and sustainability. No waste, no unnecessary drain on the environment.
• Add Zing to Rewards
  Whether it is for consumers to drive loyalty to your brand, or for your employees to encourage greater drive towards success, zing helps.
• A Wink and a Nod Toward Innovation
  Innovation is key, but sometimes the only way to succeed if it’s new to you is to take baby steps.
• Seniors as a Featured Attraction
  All too often, experienced personnel are pushed into early retirement in short-sighted corporate efforts to reduce costs. All this does is push experience and wisdom out the door. Experience and wisdom need to be retained. New employees bring new energy, methods, and technology — but without experience and wisdom to guide the proper implementation, it will be wasted energy, methods, and technology. So focus on the wise inside and outside of your organization and you might find that your potential soars.
• Flexible Format
  As market and supply chain conditions change, you need the ability to adapt.

So, were these all of the ideas that were good? Come back tomorrow to learn more.

Back in January, Stores Magazine wrote an article on “20 Ideas Worth Stealing in 2013” that had some ideas worth stealing by your Supply Management and Marketing organizations. But were they all worth stealing?

Even though they sounded good on the surface, SI would not have recommended stealing these ideas:

• Offer More Options
  While it might help a new startup break into the market, options add complexity, complexity adds cost, and unless you are serving the luxury marketplace, your corporate sustainability could be put at risk. And SI is not too fond of unnecessary shipping of product back and forth – that’s just not green.
• Picture Success
  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but you need the words – in particular, you need the strategic transformation plan to get there, whether we are talking about a new marketing initiative or a new Supply Management initiative.
• Social Crowd-Sourcing
  Offering progressive discounts against unknown inventory might get attention in the consumer world, but it also risks creating unhappy customers if you greatly underestimate demand. Similarly, how long would you deal with a supplier who would never commit to a price or an inventory level? Especially if you valued your CBI insurance!
• Place Ad Here
  While using existing programming may sound like a good idea to get your message out in the Marketing world, you risk alienating your customers that do not want to be exposed to advertising in the few aspects of their lives that are still free from advertising. And there is no equivalent in Supply Management that would make any sense at all.
• Quality Facebook Time
  Facebook is the New Egypt. We don’t need to go back in time thousands of years to when civilization was just learning to preserve its accomplishments for posterity. ‘Nuff said.
• Friends Helping Friends
  If you don’t know what you need, then you shouldn’t be making a purchase. Period. This is a ridiculous idea.
• Bring the Runway to the Consumer
  If you suspect demand is going to be high, and that consumers are not going to want to wait long, then don’t advertise your product until you know what the fulfillment date will be. It’s that simple. There’s a point where acceleration becomes so fast that consumers and suppliers can’t keep up. Remember that.

So, were all the ideas bad? No. Come back tomorrow to learn more.