Notes from the Floor 2 | Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference 2011, London

Whilst at the Garter conference I was delighted to hear that the main points being raised again and again were completely in line with what we recommend to our clients and help them implement;

• Develop a growth mindset – make the ‘conscious choice’ to improve and to be great.
• The right people are your competitive advantage (get the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off it)
• Take a step back to focus on segmenting your business into its key supply chains, based on customer and market differentiators not internal ones
• Developing a strategy for each Supply Chain in line with your customer’s requirements and what adds value to them
• Stop thinking of the supply chains as a collector of costs and more as a generator of value – Value Chains, not Supply Chains.
• Create a solid foundation for growth in order to align and integrate your business before moving forwards
• Create a sense of urgency – the leading companies are not standing still, but using the current economic issues to create a ‘burning platform’

Culture

‘Conscious Choice’ and ‘Foundations’ were words that were mentioned again and again, something we, here at SEVEN, specialise in helping companies develop. One thing that was also mentioned, mostly from the floor by attendees questioning why Gartner were not highlighting it more, was the impact of culture. I was particularly encouraged by this (in regards to the validity of our own experiences), as I was beginning to question why this was lacking from both the findings and recommendations from Gartner, given our experience with Culture as an inhibiting factor to success. However, on numerous occasions as the mic was passed from person to person, they raised the issue of culture and the impact it has on their organisation.

Question…

So – question; does your organisation have the right culture in place; has it decided to make the conscious choice to use the current economic environment as an opportunity to improve, and if so, do you have solid foundations in place in order to support the transition?

As always, really interested to hear your views.

Sean Culey – CEO, SEVEN