Category Archives: Talent

A Simple Recipe for Post-Recession Market Leadership

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A recent Industry Week article outlined “a recipe for post-recession market leadership in manufacturing” that will work for your industry too. After all, the real key to a quick recovery is good execution. So what’s the secret to turn-around success?

  1. Leverage Your Human Capital
    Your people should be the biggest asset you have. Use them. Solicit their ideas, get them on board, and let them take ownership.
  2. Benchmark the Gap Between Reported, Actual, and Potential Efficiency
    You’re never as efficient as you think you are, and you probably don’t know how efficient you could be.
  3. Take Action
    Identify the efficiency improvements that will give you the biggest bang for your buck and go for them.

For many of you, you’ll start with step 2 and hire a consultant who is an expert in efficiency in each of the areas that offer the greatest opportunities for savings. She’ll help you understand how well you’re really doing against how well you think you’re doing, how well you could be doing, and some general directions to get there. Then you’ll use your people to select the roads that are likely to work best for your company and the modes of transportation to get there. Then you’ll take the trip.

With respect to (your) sourcing and procurement (department), this means that you will:

  1. Hire a data analysis and category expert to analyze your spending and operations and identify your best cost reduction opportunities.
  2. Use your people to evaluate systems that will help you capture the cost reduction potential and manage the opportunities you have identified.
  3. Decide on the categories to attack and the systems to use and empower your team to take action.

McKinsey’s Leadership Lessons for Hard Times

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A recent article in McKinsey, which was based on a series of interviews with 14 CEOs and Chairmen of big companies like 3M, Tyco, Pepsi, P&G, and Sysco, described some emergent “leadership lessons for hard times” that was a good read. The harder times get, the more important good leadership is. Anyone can lead during a boom when consumers are spending freely and impulsively … but it takes a special type of leader to lead when the sky is falling all around you.

While not a complete list of lessons that a leader needs to learn, the following five lessons that emerged from McKinsey’s discussions are definitely critical.

  • Confront Reality
    The sooner you accept reality, even if it is a drastically constricting market, the sooner you can start dealing with it. The first company to deal with it is often the winner.
  • Put Strategy First
    Strategy should be the first item on the agenda of every board meeting … and you should be taking advantage of everything your board members have to offer.
  • Be Transparent
    At all levels. You will need the support and trust of your employees to make it through … and that will require regular, open, communication. Openness builds respect, trust, and solidarity which in turn helps employees stay focussed.
  • Build a Culture
    A culture binds a company together and helps to create trust.
  • Keep the Faith
    Even a crisis has opportunities, and since the nature of markets is that they follow up and down cycles, things will eventually get better.

And whatever you do, avoid the axe. Use a scalpel if you must, but never the axe. Chopping off the arm when you only needed to remove a finger just doesn’t make sense.

For a much deeper discussion, refer to the article. While a bit lengthy at 6 pages, it’s definitely worth it.

A Procurement Professional’s Guide to International Assignments

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The experience and perspective gained through an international assignment is ever-more valuable in today’s global supply chains and increases a procurement executive’s marketability in the long run. But making an international assignment work requires a well-thought out plan and a lot of flexibility from everyone involved-employer, employee and family.

So what should you do if you are thinking of making such a move? A recent article in Purchasing, which attempted to be “a procurement professional’s guide to international assignments”, had some good starting tips.

  • Does your company have a support structure in place for the region being relocated to?
    For example, IBM has had an established program since the 1980s where employees considering an international assignment were sent to an orientation session that addressed tax implication issues, handling your house in the US, school and church options, etc. Then, there was a look-see trip for those still serious about the idea.
  • Will your family be able to integrate into the community?
    Will there be support groups to help your family when you’re at work and traveling for work?
  • Will you be close to your suppliers?
    Not only should that be the primary benefit to the company, but it should be the primary benefit for you … you should be able to visit your suppliers regularly and develop real relationships on a professional and personal level that will help both your company and you.
  • Is the language you speak spoken there?
    It doesn’t have to be the primary language of the region, but at least a subset of people should speak it commonly as a second language.
  • Are you interested in learning a new language?
    While it may not be a necessity, it will certainly make your life easier if you are willing to learn the basics and soak it in.
  • Can you talk to people who have made the move?
    Find out about their daily lives and if you will be able to relate to their experiences.

It also had a list of do’s from Associates for International Research:

  • ensure that your company has a formal set of policies and practices
  • visit the location prior to accepting the assignment
  • have a clear understanding of the financial implications
  • understand how daily living will be different
  • obtain a proper and complete Letter of Understanding
  • read the relocation policy in advance
  • take care of any major medical or dental needs beforehand
  • get an idea of the expected outcomes of the assignment
  • obtain details on the type of security and medical services that will be offered
  • have an understanding of the tax implications and your compliance responsibilities

Five Secrets of Team Building

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In “Why Teams Don’t Work”, J. Richard Hackman of Harvard laid bare the five critical conditions that mark the difference between success and failure. Given that these trying times are requiring your team to do more with less and that the ultimate secret of supply chain success often boils down to cross-functional teams managing needs from product inception to final product disposal, successful teams are more important than ever. Here are Hackman’s five basic conditions of effective teams and ultimate success:

  1. Teams Must Be Real
    People need to know who’s on the team, who’s not, and who has what responsibilities. A virtual team or vague team concept won’t get the job done.
  2. Teams Need a Compelling Direction
    Members need to know what they’re supposed to be doing together. Without a clear direction, there is a real risk that different members will pursue different agendas.
  3. Teams Need Enabling Structures
    Teams with poorly designed tasks, the wrong mix of members, and un-enforced norms gravitate towards trouble.
  4. Teams Need a Supportive Organization
    The organizational context must facilitate teamwork in a manner that is conducive to the team and its members.
  5. Teams Need Expert Coaching
    A focus on individual performance does not necessarily improve the team. Teams need to be coached as a group in team processes.

Is Your Supply Chain Ready For The Millennials?

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The Millennials — better known as Generation Y, the children of the Baby Boomers born between 1980-1999, are beginning to flood the global job markets … at least to the extent that they can find work in this recession. And like each generation before, they’ll need to be integrated and trained because, if you don’t, the resultant turn over (which will cost you between 50% and 150% of their salary) will be huge … and the cost on global supply chains will run into the Billions.

The Millennials bring with them a unique perspective and work ethic that stymies older works and frequently leads to intergenerational conflict. They need to be challenged, given regular feedback, cross-trained, and shown a career path. They have high expectations for success, and they are looking for an organization that can help them achieve it. They are the most technologically savvy multi-tasking generation to-date, and they work best when collaborating. They’re a work-hard and play-hard generation looking for “cool” employers and organizations that provide them with:

  • career laddering,
  • socialization,
  • mentoring, and
  • positive reinforcement.