by Elizabeth Hines | Sep 5, 2016 | Blog, Leadership, Strategy, Talent
Some companies include failure as a performance metric, but establishing a culture of innovation is a better inflection point for success.
Media executive Jason Seiken is known for taking the Washington Post online and for turning PBS into a digital media powerhouse. Several years ago, he wrote an article, How I Got My Team To Fail More, which described his efforts at PBS to create an entrepreneurial culture by requiring members of the digital team to fail. Seiken wrote:
“Soon after arriving at PBS, I called the digital team into a conference room and announced we were ripping up everyone’s annual performance goals and adding a new metric. Failure. With a twist: ‘If you don’t fail enough times during the coming year,’ I told every staffer, ‘you’ll be downgraded.’ Because if you’re not failing enough, you’re playing it safe. The idea was to deliver a clear message: Move fast. Iterate fast. Be entrepreneurial. Don’t be afraid that if you stretch and sprint you might break things. Executive leadership has your back.”
Five years after introducing the failure metric to PBS, unique visitors to PBS.org doubled, and in each of the first seven months of 2013, PBS.org was the most-visited network TV site (beating out ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox). Additionally, video views on PBS.org and PBS.org’s mobile platforms rose 11,200%.
Was requiring failure the key to success? Not all those who read the post believed so. Rather, many readers suggested that the creation of a culture of innovation, one supported by executive leadership, was the inflection point for success.
The idea that innovation in business or an entrepreneurial culture is brought about by leadership is one put forth by many, including Robert J. Herbold. In his book What’s Holding You Back: 10 Bold Steps that Define Gutsy Leaders, Herbold submits that it is the responsibility of a leader to establish a culture of innovation. That is, a leader must communicate a goal of innovation to his/her employees; encourage employees to aspire to innovation; reward innovation; and instill a sense of urgency.
I see innovation and entrepreneurism as the goal and not failure. For this reason I believe the focus should not be on failure, but instead should be establishing a culture which supports innovation. Yes risk-taking and failure are likely components of innovation, but they are just that — components. “Requiring failure” may be sexy, but I believe supporting innovation is more likely to be the game changer.
What do you think? Is failure a requirement for success? Should leadership focus on encouraging failure?
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 25, 2016 | Blog, Data/Analytics, Leadership, Strategy
Forget tracking traditional metrics and focus on decision-quality data that helps front-line managers do their jobs.
It’s safe to say that the clients I engage with fall into two categories when it comes to business data: those that are drowning in it, and those that ignore it altogether.
The ones that are drowning in data know all the relevant facts that keep them out of trouble with their boards or their senior executives, but struggle to tell you what really drives their business costs or profits. The ones that ignore the data are the savvy veterans that rely on their historical win/loss records in their business, but ask them to change course or innovate, and they are like fish out of water.
Chances are you’ll fall somewhere close to those two camps, and for some time, I did as well. Then that I realized that tracking data for the sake of “tracking” was a waste of time for me and for my teams.
There is data, however, that should be tracked relentlessly and used in all of your decision processes. I call this “decision-quality” data. These are the numbers that drive your business strategy and execution.
What is decision-quality data?
Decision-quality data goes beyond the traditional profit/loss packages that are churned out every quarter and disseminated to your business chieftains. Decision-quality data sets are the building blocks and the levers of your business. Examples include areas of your business that can be affected by the execution of your employees.
Put simply, your sales employees may not be able to directly affect your finance treasury function, but working together with your finance team, they can affect cash flow by selling credit-worthy customers, cutting better financial deals, and, when necessary, helping in the collection process.
The same can be said of your purchasing professionals teaming with distribution leaders and finance team. This team can coordinate at the front line to cut costs and reduce inventory spend by developing inventory and financial metrics that matter to them and the company overall. By working in concert, they have the ability to solve the problems that arise and avoid pitfalls in real time instead of reacting when the quarterly metrics come out.
Quite frankly, if you are collecting and looking at data, but not taking action as the result of it, STOP. You won’t miss a thing, and your team will thank you for saving them time to spend on more productive activities.
Don’t fall into the data-cycle-trap dictated by data tracked on a calendar basis for the sake of tracking. Ask your teams what data they need to be effective, and simplify the way for them to get it in near real time.
Once this type of data is in the hands of a cross-functional team of front-line managers, task them with the needed improvement, and watch them make dramatic impacts in your overall business performance and customer experience and, in turn, your profits. The results will be better and more sustained than if you drove them with a mandate from the top because these managers live and breathe in the environment that created the data in the first place. Their cross-functional nature and familiarity with the issues are a winning combination.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 22, 2016 | Blog, Logistics, Manufacturing & Distribution, Strategy, Supply Chain
Improve your company’s financial performance by implementing a risk-management strategy that plans for everyday events and disruptions.
Supply chain disruptions can have a significant impact on business and financial performance. A recent PwC and the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation survey found a strong correlation between the maturity of businesses’ risk-management processes and reduced decline in operational performance indicators in the face of disruption.
A supply chain company’s need for a well-developed risk-management strategy is clear. That means planning for disruptions beyond the big-impact events, like environmental catastrophes, cyber attacks, and geopolitical instability. Companies need to be better prepared to handle day-to-day bumps in the road.
Managing everyday risks
Managers will often consider cataclysmic events but ignore the smaller risks that create friction in the supply chain. Dealing with these smaller factors in a reactive and piecemeal fashion is inefficient and ineffective and can significantly hurt your company.
Consider the following tips when developing an effective risk-management strategy that focuses on the everyday risks:
1) Employ a robust strategy that is always evolving.
Consider all of the factors that currently influence your supply chain, and be vigilant in terms of new technologies or emerging risks that could impact operations in the future.
2) Put a leader in charge.
Choose someone experienced in crisis management, negotiation, and critical problem-solving. This leader should be skilled in diplomacy and remaining calm under pressure.
3) Make sure the strategy is flexible.
A strategy that it uncompromising and rigid can exacerbate issues.
4) Define your comprehensive process.
Develop a clearly defined process to mitigate events such as cash-flow issues, inventory risk, competitor interruptions, client credit risk and default, data backup and recovery, key client attrition, employee satisfaction and retention, social media use and abuse, and reputation recovery.
5) Include human resources in the strategy.
Consider moving employees into new roles as a solution. Moving an employee into a new role permanently (or for a specified period to deal with an event) can help mitigate issues.
6) Don’t hide the issue.
If there is a problem, be sure that the clients hear about the problem from you. Be clear, concise, and honest when you contact clients. Explain what the issue is and what you are doing to address it.
7) Get everyone on board.
Take the time to make sure everyone is educated about the strategy and who is in charge. If just one person knows the strategy, it will not be effective.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Aug 16, 2016 | Blog, Data/Analytics, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain
Look at your financial metrics on a granular level, beyond the basic snapshot, to identify opportunities for growth.
Big data can show homogeneous revenue opportunities and cost inputs. But that overview is inadequate for determining how different aspects of your business are performing and where opportunity for growth may lie.
Essentially, you need to analyze your financial metrics at a granular level rather than in aggregate. For example, your business probably offers several products or services and feeds off of more than one revenue stream. Each must be evaluated separately in terms of value and profitability to determine how each is performing, rather than just examining your entire portfolio as a whole.
The key to increasing profits is not always blazingly obvious, but rather it is hidden in the minutia. There you will identify what is growing the business and what is not.
How to get down to the granular level of your financial metrics:
Consider your sales figures.
What is your profit — broken down by product, brand, region, etc.? Note any similarities and differences. Can you identify outliers? Can you identify what works and what your barriers are? If not, you must drill down further. For example, if a specific product is successful, why is this so? Is its success the result of a team or an individual? Can this knowledge or skill be applied to other products or services?
Identify products, brands, or services that don’t make financial sense.
You know they exist already. They are the ones that eat up your resources or simply no longer fit well with your brand. It may be time to eliminate ill-fitting clients, products, or services that don’t benefit the company. You then can pour the freed-up resources into higher-profit activities.
Know what the critical numbers are.
What is important to your business can be very specific to your industry. Inc. magazine’s guide to tracking critical numbers offers a great example: “A software consultant may focus on billable time, for instance, while a food retailer should be looking at sales per labor hour.”
Repeat this review process often.
This is not a one-time exercise. Typically, financials should be reviewed monthly, but each business will vary. Things that ebb and flow, like inventory or manufacturing output, should be reviewed each day, and the sales pipeline should be examined once per week.
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by Elizabeth Hines | Jul 21, 2016 | Blog, Logistics, Strategy, Supply Chain, Talent
A veteran recruiter explains where the supply chain talent shortage is headed and how companies can overcome the challenges.
A recent report on the supply chain talent gap draws a sobering conclusion: The supply chain management profession finds itself in crisis. Unless you do it right, attracting and hiring skilled professionals can be challenging.
Deloitte’s third annual Supply Chain Survey, released last year, also states: “Many organizations are confronting critical shortfalls of talent. Years of headcount reduction, training-budget cuts, and the retirement of highly skilled individuals have hollowed out the ranks of veteran professionals.”
The Deloitte findings are echoed in another report by the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. While the driver shortage is well known, the report maintains the talent gap encompasses every level of supply chain management and is likely to grow worse as baby boomers retire.
So what is an organization to do? How can you become better prepared and make your search for talent more effective?
Few people are better positioned to answer these questions than Rodney Apple, founder and president of SCM Talent Group. With almost 20 years of experience as a supply chain recruiter, he has filled more than 1,000 supply chain positions ranging from executive-level at Fortune 500 companies to leadership and staff-level roles across large networks of manufacturing and distribution facilities within the United States.
We sat down with Apple to get his thoughts on the realities of the supply chain talent drought.
EBN: What is the status of the supply chain shortage from your perspective?
Apple: I work with a lot of companies in key industries across the supply chain, from junior to C-level positions. Here’s what I’m seeing: It’s not getting any better. If you break it up into job level, entry-level positions tend to be less challenging to fill since more universities are now offering supply chain degrees. Supply chain students at Michigan State University, which offers the top-rated program, can count on multiple offers and interviews before they even graduate. The same thing goes for Penn State, University of Tennessee, and other universities with top-tier supply chain programs.
Middle management, let’s call it junior to mid-level, that’s where companies are struggling; that’s where you find the bulk of people doing the work, and that’s where most of our searches are. It really is about sheer numbers, a generational issue. At the executive level, enough people have risen up, but I’m concerned that as baby boomers retire, it could create a problem in the near future.
Which positions tend to be the most challenging to fill?
Junior-level positions, those who have between one to four years of experience. When you land your first job out of college, you keep your head down and get immersed in the job that has to be done. You’re not actively looking for a new job. So you really have to do a lot of direct sourcing to find the analysts, engineers, inventory managers, and planners and sell them on why they should make a career move at this stage of their career. They are not in management but doing tactical, analysis kind of work. Those are the most challenging positions.
At what point do companies ask for your help?
Small and medium-sized companies often come as soon as a position needs to be filled since they don’t have dedicated resources for recruiting. If they have tried themselves and the search has been unsuccessful, the need is urgent by the time they come to us.
What challenges do companies run into when trying to recruit talent?
When you look at the supply chain function, it’s typically the most complex, diverse, and challenging. Unlike recruiting for clear-cut, core corporate functions such as IT and Finance, the supply chain sector will yield a much greater variety of job profiles. Add the complexity of different job levels and geographic factors that may involve distribution centers and plants spread out all over the country, and you will see why it can be challenging to find the right fit.
Companies also tend to understaff or undervalue the supply chain recruiting function. Coupled with a lot of internal movement, from the corporate office to the field and back, it’s like a game of musical chairs — you’re always backfilling internal movement. If you’re also looking for a high-demand skillset, it can be similar to finding a needle in a haystack.
How should a company prepare to increase the likelihood of a successful search?
First of all, you need to up your game when it comes to finding and sourcing candidates. You have to master the intake process. Before you even post a job opening, sit down with the hiring team or manager. You have to truly understand your company’s unique value proposition, selling points, culture, and what makes it exciting to work for your company. Then, you have to gather information on what I call the supply chain footprint; you have to understand the company’s organizational structure — the number of plants, warehouses, key challenges, key opportunities, key projects — and look at its size, scope, and complexity, including the process, system, and talent.
Next, you have to understand the position you’re trying to fill: the selling points, key deliverables, key challenges, key traits, and so forth. Use that information to build the position profile. A lot of companies start with the job description and fill it with skills and qualifications, and that is not the best way to go about it.
What’s the next step?
You take that information and sit down with hiring team to develop what I call an omnichannel sourcing strategy. There are a lot of channels to tap into. Many make the mistake of thinking the act of posting gets the job done, but you can never just sit back and wait. You may be able to get away with that if there’s an abundance of talent in the marketplace or if you’re a marquee employer, but in the supply chain you have to employ other sourcing tactics, which could include proactively reaching out to universities in the region and even nationally that match up with people in the workforce.
You also need to direct source across different channels. Come up with a targeted list not only of industries, but of companies who may employ the type of talent that you’re looking for. You don’t always need to shop in same industry because supply chain tends to be a transferable skillset, especially in logistics, procurement, and inventory planning. Other channels not to be left out include LinkedIn, Google search strings, top supply chain associations, membership directories, and employee referrals — you want to have strong referral programs to allow people to easily share job opportunities with their networks and potentially build an internal resume database if you have frequent openings.
What part of the search process tends to be forgotten?
When you’re a smaller company, you have to understand your unique value prop. It’s critical that you find a candidate who’s looking for the same work environment that you offer; I call it the ‘motivational fit.’ You may not want to source someone from a Fortune 500 who’s used to robust process systems, organizational structures, volumes, scope, and immense complexity.
Look at companies in your own range. Can you find people who want to continue working for similarly sized companies with similar challenges and opportunities? You may want to engage search firms if you only have a few openings to fill per year as it costs less than employing a full-time recruiter. Every company needs to figure out what talent acquisition resources they need from a people, process, and systems/tools perspective in efforts to proactively hunt people down because that’s what it takes to land top supply chain talent these days.
What can you do to make it last?
Make sure you have a strong onboarding program. Don’t just throw the person into the fire. On the onset, establish goals and expectations. The new hire should understand what needs to be accomplished and outline key deliverables, projects, and performance expectations. This is where management and leadership come in to make people successful, especially in a smaller company. Most companies are doing a pretty good job in this area with mentorships, additional training, courses, and so on, to help the employee reach his or her career goals.
Some companies are also moving away from the rigid once-a-year performance review to more real-time, on-the-spot, feedback. Everyone wants to advance. If your company requires everyone to be in a position for 24 months before they can even apply, you run the risk of losing them. In general, you should be more flexible how you move talent throughout the organization. It can do wonders.
What is your experience when it comes to looking for supply chain talent? What do you consider to be key steps to success?
This article originally appeared on EBN Online.
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