Vivek Sood's Blog, page 41

THE SINGLE BIGGEST MISTAKE IN BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONS

If I have seen it once, I have seen it a hundred times.  A new person is brought in with a clear mandate. The things are meant to change. Out with the old, and in with the new. The new person comes in with a great fanfare, and takes over. Then he/she starts taking stock […]

DEMYSTIFYING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

I have been asked this question a lot on Quora, as well in my board and other speeches. A lot of supply chain commentary is becoming too technical and mysterious. Supply Chain Software sellers have a vested interest in creating the mystique – similar to what McKinsey used to do about 20 years ago. But […]

What Business Executives Can Learn From The Story of Brazil’s Soccer Transformation

In the early 90s, more than two decades since its last World Cup championship title, Brazil hungered for the trophy more than any other country on earth. Yet the scars from its 1950 campaign were still not totally erased. Dubbed as the saddest day in Brazilian soccer history, July 16 1950 was the day Brazil […]

High Demand for Real Supply Chain Experts

Good solid supply chain thinkers are in high demand and low supply. I would know, I run this company called Global Supply Chain Group for the last 17 years. It appears that it was not too long ago (when we formed this company) – most business people were struggling to understand what is supply chain […]

In Supply Chains Opportunity Only Knocks Once

Free chapters of the book THE 5-STAR BUSINESS NETWORKS for senior executives and CXOs reveal secrets of how to leverage technologies and techniques of supply chain winners to create formidable lead and impermeable advantage over competitors. These chapters are only available for limited time by sending an email to info@globalscgroup.com For more information on the book, go […]

Part 2 – Digitisation – How to Position Yourself For Reaping the Rewards of Economic Transformation Sweeping the Globe?

There is no doubt that digitisation is changing our world rapidly. And, it is just the beginning – a bit like the industrial revolution in the early 1900’s.

Today, the benefits of the industrial revolution are there for everyone to enjoy. An average worker today enjoys the standard of living far higher than the aristocracy 250 years ago. An average factory worker, even in the developing world, has more clothes, more shoes, more variety, more entertainment than ever before in the history.…

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End of the Year Stretch? Hidden Gold Nuggets for Companies Struggling to Make the Numbers

In the last few weeks I came across several companies who were stretching the numbers to make the budgets, or something close to it. All the usual tricks have been tried, and the creative junior accountants are now inching towards the territory which can possibly put the senior executives in hot soup.

Of course, the usual suspects have been already taken care of. As usual, the expensive international travel by executives have been put on hold. Most consulting projects have been deferred to the start of the next year.

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Why Most Executives Hate Matrix Organisations: Anarchy, Power Struggles, Severe Groupitis and Collapse During Economic Crunch – Part 1

ClusterF*** – that is how a Senior VP of a very large corporation recently described his companies matrix organisation to me. Similar to almost all other global corporations, this one was also organised along matrix lines.

For the uninitiated I will take a few lines to describe the matrix. This company operated in more than 80 countries on the face of the earth, and every country had its own CEO who reported to the regional CEO. Under the national CEO, were the functional teams – Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, and now also Supply Chain.…

The post Why Most Executives Hate Matrix Organisations: Anarchy, Power Struggles, Severe Groupitis and Collapse During Economic Crunch – Part 1 appeared first on Global Supply Chain Group | Management And Strategy Consultants.

Anarchy of Matrix Organisations Leads to Power Struggles, Severe Groupitis and Collapse During Economic Crunch – Part 2

ClusterF*** – that is how a Senior VP of a very large corporation recently described his companies matrix organisation to me. Similar to almost all other global corporations, this one was also organised along matrix lines.

In part 1 of this article I discussed in detail some of the problems with matrix structures that are so prevalent among global organisation. I also gave several relevant references and readings.

The problems with Matrix Organisations is well known and discussed ever since they existed – even before supply chains were ‘invented’.

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The post Anarchy of Matrix Organisations Leads to Power Struggles, Severe Groupitis and Collapse During Economic Crunch – Part 2 appeared first on Global Supply Chain Group | Management And Strategy Consultants.

No Company Ever Went Bankrupt Because of No IT Systems; But Many Companies Went Bankrupt Because of Wrong IT Systems

No IT system is better than the wrong one. This was brought home to me this week again, when I was looking at a supply chain system in action, and compared its output with what could be done without the system.

Personally, over the last 20 years as a top tier consultant, I have seen many companies facing near death experiences due to such systems (thankfully, most of them recovered, once the top management realised the truism of the statement in this title).…

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