We can come up with the best strategies, but if they are not executable, customers will not see them.
In the product business – credits and attention are usually given to
- Product team for coming up with the Ideas,
- Marketing team for their consumer Insights,
- Sales team for securing listings and selling in Campaigns,
But how about the people that actually make the products “happen”?
- Demand and Supply Planning – making sure we make enough, but not too much to waste
- Manufacturing – producing products with attractive quality and cost
- Logistics and Distribution – getting the right products to the right place at the right time
I remember years back at a year-end results presentation, I highlighted a 1% improvement in case fill rate (% of customer orders fulfilled) was a significant driver for the whole business to beat its target. Most people did not realize that because it was not a common topic at an all-employee town hall. But a great team of dedicated folks who plan, analyze and improve things every day made it possible. Often we expect flawless execution and sure, things “should happen” but people work to plan and make things happen.
Lost sales is a Sin – Great product, marketing, sales, financials don’t matter if we cannot serve the customer.
Tactics, Shortcuts, Hacks
Often we look for shortcuts and hacks in the form of Tactics to reapply others’ success. The 7 Step checklist that led to marketing success, the 10 Tips from Brand X that grew to $100M. We are all inspired by the latest success story or attracted by the shiny objects. It’s easy to say we want the results but we need to place more attention to the pre-conditions that enable the delivery. Can we execute?
Before you can run that data visualization to tell the business story, someone had to collect, cleanse, organize, analyze the data.
Before you can launch that $10M product drop, your operations team needs to ensure all the stakeholders have products available and the capability to serve them.
Logistics, Fundamentals
The Masters of Business focuses on the process and capabilities that enable them to make and keep promises, build the machines that build the machine, be self-sufficient and flexible.
If we expand the definition of Logistics, we can generally cover physical, digital and people systems. They need to operate in ways congruent with the company’s DNA and unique set of contexts. While it’s easy to point out the deficiencies of the current state, they used to be the future state design for the right reasons, for the right people, at the time.
Physical Supply Chains need to be built and operated with reliability, sufficiency AND efficiency. Classical significant management suggested most design choices are made as an optimization between cost, volume, quality. It’s an on-going, dynamic adjustment process based on your objectives. For instance, decades of globalization shifted the norm from Just-In-Case inventory to Just-In-Time inventory and with the model over-optimized for cost, lead time and reliability suffer with any disruption.
Digital Systems provide the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time, so they can make better decisions – this would be a universal statement for any system. Today that continues to be a gap and opportunity for many organizations. This will only increase given the increasing operational complexity and the need for agility.
People Systems are your ultimate force multipliers. They are the reason your organization can learn, adapt, innovate. Your people create and operate your physical and digital systems, and ultimately deliver the impact you intend to make for your customers, suppliers, etc. Are they provided with clear objectives, effective tools, information, resources, autonomy?
Each change on one part of the system affects the others, so internal or external changes will require adjustments or optimization.
Should every company have Amazon’s infrastructure? How about Uber’s on-demand workforce?
The details matter, the nuisance make a difference, the how makes a difference
How would you arrange your lego blocks so you can execute consistently, seamlessly, effectively?
