Blogs
Embracing Labor on Demand in Today’s VUCA World
Scaling Your Workforce, Decoupling Constraints Can Slice Manufacturing, Distribution Costs I’ve written many times about how VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) characterize today’s business environment. Disruption truly is the new normal, and...
Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Q.E.D. (Thus, It Is Proved)
The Myth of the 'Post-COVID Normal' in Supply Chain One of my Purdue engineering professors used to write “quod erat demonstrandum: Q.E.D.” on the blackboard after proving a particular equation or theorem. The Latin translates as “what was to be shown,” per Wikipedia....
Why Assessing Culture and Talent Is Crucial for M&A Success
Ignoring the Human Element Can Lead to Unforeseen Problems During Integration During due diligence, corporate M&A teams often focus on technology, systems and finances, not culture and talent. After all, enhancing the bottom line is the primary goal. Your...
Decoding What CEOs Discuss – And What They Should
Exploring the Gap Between C-Suite Rhetoric and Supply Chain Realities What CEOs are talking about, what they are actually doing and what they should be talking about can be entirely separate things. This is clear from the latest quarterly analysis of “What CEOs Talked...
The Future Office: An Innovation Space, Not Workstation Warehouse
Change the Way You Think about Leadership … and Real Estate In the wake of the pandemic, we’ve seen a seismic shift in the way we work. The traditional office, once the epicenter of productivity, has been replaced by home...
Demographic Changes Will Force Supply Chain Changes
‘The Future Is Gray; It Is Delayed, Small and Female’ I’ve been talking about how disruption is the new normal for some time. Technological innovations, geopolitical crises and financial woes are forcing business and supply chain leaders to prepare for the future in...
How Regionalization Can Be as Profitable as Globalization
Global GDP, Population Make Economies of Scale Possible in Smaller Geographic Footprints Do you really need to tap global markets to achieve economies of scale? And will the future world economy even allow for such? After all, former CIA Director and U.S. Secretary of...
Sourcing and Procurement in the Face of Perpetual Disruption
Top 10 Tips for Synchronization and Supply Chain Resiliency Sourcing and procurement have been integral to supply chains since Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Mesopotamians establishing trading networks in ancient days. Railroads, the industrial revolution, the internal...
Redefining Work in 2024: Return-to-Office Mandates Cost
Innovations in Adaptable Labor and Technology Can Benefit Blue-Collar Workers From X (ex-Twitter) to Amazon to IBM to Meta to US Bancorp, the 2024 return-to-office mandate march continues. Some commentators, including Elon Musk, claim the issue is fairness....
Supply Chain Segmentation Helps Conduct Beautiful Music
Age-old Strategy Boosts Agility, Resilience, Performance I was around when supply chain segmentation first developed, back in the 1990s. Some first attempts resembled thrash metal – loud, harsh and not pleasant to my ears. Still, supply chain leaders plowed ahead. The...
AI-Powered Innovations Transform Workplace Safety
Keeping Workers Alive and Healthy Is a Strategic Imperative In the ever-evolving landscape of industrial safety, harnessing the potential of cutting-edge technologies is no longer a luxury. It's a strategic imperative. According to the National Safety Council, U.S....
Supply Chain Finance Beyond the Big Banks
AI-Powered Trading Platform Unlocks Liquidity for SMES Without Hindering Large Enterprises Over the years, larger enterprises have stretched their order-to-cash cycles from a few weeks (30-45 days) to months (120-240 days). Waiting so long to get paid crimps small and...