Tag: Sales

Two “I”s to keep a Hawk eye on in 2025

As 2025 begins, COOs in the physical goods industries with a global footprint, must focus on two areas – inventory and inflation, amidst global trade and other uncertainties (tariffs etc.). The shifting geopolitical landscape may severely disrupt inventory controls across extended value network (both supply & downstream channel/customer side), and inflate costs. Leaders should closely monitor inventory trends and adapt to inflationary pressures to mitigate potential impacts on margins and operational efficiency.

A note for COOs and team on Inventory & Inflation

(updated Feb 10th, 2025 with tariff changes & rollout updates; previous update Feb 2nd, 2025 with post-tariff imposition data & ADDENDUM at bottom; previous update: Jan 31st, 2025 5:10 pm US PST)

To start off the year 2025, we decided to read the tea leaves a different way – we went looking for clues on what will it look like this year that we should plan and prepare for? what needs to be brought into sharper focus – priorities revisited, big perils identified, collaborations renewed?

This note, for those that are in the physical goods industries – is about what should be top-most priority over the next 30 to 90 days that COO & team should focus and act on. And the focus should not diminish as the year wears on, and beyond.

The Gathering Dust Clouds

The year 2025 – is off to a strange start – a new administration in Washington that, on the surface, appears inclined towards policies which at a meta level, will fragment the world further – at least from a global supply network standpoint. This could potentially realign previously implicit “friendly nation” status, and most likely impact the free flow of goods adversely, increasing procurement costs in the US and inevitably beyond. This, given the tariffs directed at goods from Mexico and Canada among other countries, high on the incoming administration’s wish list (now a reality as of Feb 1st, 2025)

“Wall” of Tariffs, a bigger wall of uncertainty

A wall of worry has unsurprisingly descended on the most senior leaders of product companies with a global footprint, especially COOs and their cross-functional teams managing world-wide operations of US based companies that procure parts and finished manufactured goods from the countries targeted.

While speculations that new US administration’s tariff “statements” were a pre-emptive move to gain a strategic negotiation advantage have been negated by President Trump’s announcement yesterday (Feb 1, 2025), there is nervous optimism that the worst may still not come to pass (i.e., maybe a near-term, a quarter or two out type setback), or so some industry groups hope.
[Update – Feb 10, 2025: Tariff implementation continue to be dynamic –

Understandably, anxiety levels are now running high – especially among senior Operations executives who source goods (semi-finished, or finished products) from Mexico and Canada, given the direct, damaging pressure it will put on COGS[1] of even well-run, US based product companies.

That the air in global trade circles is thick with anxiety over the impact of the disruptive changes, is a given. What is less understood is the impact of the inflationary headwinds, the inevitable tit-for-tat type tariff wars and low-trust trade environment will have on midsize companies, and even larger ones that do not have large cash buffers to tide them through.

The picture that emerges – of the damage this does to the balance sheet of (previously) “friendly” nations, many of who are already saddled with debt, does not look pretty. For potential impact numbers see “ADDENUM” below.

This is happening at a time when many industry supply chains could be carrying high levels of potentially excessive “inventory” with a foggy, near-term demand picture. All in all, January-February of 2025 (potentially H1, 2025) is a fraught time, uncertainties abound, especially about global trade and supply networks.

[1] Cost of Good Sold (COGS)

How to cut through it?

What’s an operations leader to do in such a time? Focus. Focus on these two items not just for now but all year long and beyond.

Focus-1: Inventory

Keep a “Hawk eye” on inventory. Inventory, no matter where it is in your value network – at suppliers, in your DC/WH[1], or at your channel partners, or some mix of these.

Inventory of parts/ raw-materials, semifinished and finished goods.

Pay particularly close attention to components/parts that suppliers may be holding for you, or may have been ordered from component suppliers – Tier 2 or Tier 1, based on the extent of outsourced manufacturing you have deployed.

Keep a sharp focus on how inventories are trending at your channel partners (distributors, VAD[2]s etc.) in the case of channel centric sales model, and/or your largest direct customers, and prepare to take informed actions swiftly to right size channel inventory levels ASAP, when needed.

Keep a sharp focus on how inventories are trending at your channel partners.. your largest direct customers .. prepare to take informed actions swiftly to right size channel inventory levels ASAP

 In fact, look at every nook and cranny where high value inventory may be collecting and gathering dust.

Then step back, make informed decisions based on upcoming demand, which in this environment could be much harder to pin down.

Excess inventory can severely disrupt product and technology transitions too – for example, holding back product companies from transitioning products to new hardware/software platform, to key parts, or to an entirely new industry standard. Often, such a transition comes with advantages for the product maker (lower unit costs, better performance, etc.) and their customers (lower price points for similar or better capabilities). With excessive inventory, a product company gets stuck on older versions of their products – unable to obtain the advantages of achieving a lower price point for similar or better output performance for a much longer time, or ever.

A quick point – That end of quarter demand “hockey – stick” needs to be looked at with a new lens too. Today’s hot order, which will put us well over the top end of our quarter target(s), could be a noose around our necks in a quarter or two, or soon thereafter. Change sales incentives if need be. Unusual times call for businesses to not operate “as usual”.

[1] Distribution Centers (DC) / Warehouses (WH)

[2] Value Added Distributors (VAD)

Focus-2: Inflation (tariffs etc.)

Mind the “inflation gap” – the gap between “newly normalized inflation rates” (macro, estimate of inflation based on ‘aggregated’ data), and what is actually happening (actual inflation rates faced by manufacturers/suppliers in the supply chain).

Yes, Chair Powell and Federal Reserve team have done a heck of a job when it comes to taming the inflation beast, but with uncertain times ahead – unpleasant realities (unanticipated sudden spike*, stubborn or higher inflation, etc.) can come to pass rather quickly.

* In light of the announced Trump Tariffs a sudden spike in inflation is all but guaranteed on some key goods imported from nearshore manufacturing partners Mexico and Canada – food, fuel, autos and electronics to name a few.

As the US and other prime-mover, free market economies, enter an uncertain phase of the business cycle (have we landed yet ? hard or soft landing, or some mix of those?), and the predictable purchasing price inflation caused by tariffs imposed on inbound goods into the US, the job of Supply operations team – planners, procurement and manufacturing – has to be redefined and skills upgraded quickly.

Monitoring impact of inflation on piece parts’ and other key input prices (labor, etc.) will not be a one off that many experienced during the pandemic, but will become a regular feature of their role. And the smartest, forward-thinking operations leaders already get it, and working on capabilities to enhance their team’s performance.

Monitoring impact of inflation on piece parts’ and other key input prices (labor, etc.) will not be a one off that many experienced during the pandemic, but will become a regular feature of their (Supply Operations – Planner, Procurement) role.

They are building better processes enabled by new digital capabilities so procurement/materials management teams are “always on” when it comes to sniffing out an imminent threat of inflation so it can be snuffed out.

Most Operations teams (Procurement, Manufacturing), already went through a bruising time as the shock of the initial lockdowns of the pandemic gave away to the shocking increase in lead times and unit cost of inputs.

This time around it could get a lot tougher. Because, we don’t yet know if we are sliding towards a slowdown or recession – mild, medium or severe – this year (next 2 to 3 quarters are key), or, are we racing down.

For when the chips are (really) down across all product companies, i.e., the downward part of the business cycle, and trading partners are not seeing eye to eye, and inflation rears its head in ugly way – there may be no place to hide.

Your COGS will get a bruising.

Your margins may get neutralized, and you may bleed into the red.

Key Questions & Question the Status Quo

These are the two things for COO and their teams to focus on this year and harness all their collective energies to stay ahead of any potential disruptions. Some key questions to prepare better:

a) What will be the impact of inventory (starting with inventory downstream in the channels/ at customers, working backwards to parts level inventory) if product uptake deviates from plan, or other changes/ events happen which dampen demand or modify it significantly? What key decisions need to be taken? When and how to minimize any adverse impact?

b) How to monitor inflation and its impact on product cost? What specific approach and actions (smart negotiation, smart sourcing among others) can companies deploy to get ahead of the curve on tariffsthat will lead toinflation in procurement costs? What tools will be needed support such actions to mute or mitigate the impact of higher prices? What’s the the best way to measure the impact on product costs (bottom-up, top-down, other) and evaluate options?

As Supply Operations and Demand-gen operations team rush from one quarter to the next, what should the cross-functional teams plan and be prepared for, so they can harness experience, data, insights and tools, including enterprise software, as needed, to:

  • Plan and prepare for different scenarios (cost changes/ increases, sourcing changes, changes to supply chains, etc.)
  • Get alerted on deviations in Inventory & Inflation (tariff driven or otherwise)
  • Make data-informed decisions (clean data available via collaboration is key)
  • Ensure that learnings from deviations can be captured for the future

Question any responses that sound like “business as usual”.

What can we do?

Reach out and build new partnerships – not just with new physical goods suppliers but with digital (and expertise based) goods suppliers.

Companies (at least in the US) need to start looking inwards within the US, to find reliable, quality manufacturing and other supply sources here – including upstream component & commodity suppliers, assuming their cost structure and business model supports it.

Near term

Start working on establishing relationships with US based manufacturers sooner than you previously thought.

In the near term (current Quarter to 3-4 quarters out), higher quality, cost-competitive US based manufacturers may see their capacity getting quickly gobbled up, as product companies turn inwards. Better to “reserve capacity” now, before you are “shut out”, or are put on a “waiting list”.

New factory capacity and capability takes a long time to come online, be vetted and ready.

And, of course, negotiate with your suppliers in the tariff impacted countries – Mexico and Canada, for now. Its surprising how adversity can create more open channels of collaboration provided these are the right partners.

Longer term

Longer term (2-4 years and beyond) – the jury is still out. However, some of these tariffs may gain wider (not just “populist“) support across policy makers and end customers, and may become sticky in some industries – especially, if it lifts up nation-specific manufacturing capabilities (in this case, lifts up American manufacturing broadly).

So, this may also be the time for longer term plans which may include:

a) vertical integration via acquisition (acquiring the right manufacturers, critical upstream supplier), and/or

b) putting down concrete near-term plans to invest in your own factories here in the US (or wherever the company’s home-base is), with the goal of pouring concrete soon, or acquiring a factory or more, if needed

c) Hone your manufacturing supplier relationship management skills which has been blunted over the past 2+ decades of outsourcing in many industries. No, not the classic sourcing (RFQ based identification of competent suppliers, etc.), but getting waist deep in the trenches with your manufacturing partners – sharing know-how and collaborating deeply on your product specific manufacturing, materials management, collaborative planning, supply chain and even factory operations management. Yes, some skills have been dulled or lost over time. Yet this short-term pain may serve many product companies well – if its used to sharpen these skills again.

These are big changes with potential for big disruptive operational impacts on product companies near-term. However, longer term their effects could be virtuous, if your product company starts planning and preparing now.

To learn more on how we, and our advisors, have specifically helped support our customers, feel free to reach out.

We can share a few specifics, real-life stories, ideas and more of what we have learned working with senior leadership, and their cross functional operations teams across this business cycle and before, across two Fortune 100 companies and smaller, dynamic product enterprises.

To reach out  https://zyom.com/contact.php

Or, leave a comment here That will be music for our ears, and we will respond.

ADDENDUM

New details are emerging about the tariffs and its potential impacts (including price #inflation for US buyers and #supply-shock); some numbers are stark:

A few headline numbers from Bloomberg Economics analysis:

  • tariffs affect trade worth about $1.3 trillion,
  • represent 43% of US imports and
  • impacts roughly 5% of US GDP.
  • raises the average US tariff rate from near 3% currently to 10.7%, and deal a significant supply shock to the US economy
  • Utilizing Federal Reserve Board model parameters (from Trump’s first term) suggest this could reduce GDP by 1.2% and add around 0.7% to core PCE (read – inflation).
  • new tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will cost the average American household $1,245 in purchasing power (per year), trim GDP by 0.2%

Sources for numbers in ADDENDUM:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/live-blog/2025-02-01/trump-imposes-tariffs?cursorId=679EAB59B2240000

https://twitter.com/respond2demand/status/1885968500835123280

https://budgetlab.yale.edu/research/economic-and-fiscal-effects-trump-administrations-proposed-tarrifs

https://twitter.com/respond2demand/status/1885957167024590860

Acknowledgement(s): All customer colleagues we have worked with over the past 15+ years. A special shout-out to the Cambium Networks cross-functional Operations team, and to the insights gained working with cross-functional teams at Samsung Electronics and 2Wire (now CommScope).
Michael Dodd (formerly senior Operations executive at Leapfrog, Juniper among others, and advisor to Zyom)

Disclaimer: No Generative AI was used for composing any of the writeups here (including this one), nor for any data gathering; At this point of time, Generative AI is being used in a “limited editor/ summarizer” role only, not to generate any new content on this site. Readers will be informed in advance if this changes.

After the Kick-off – “Early” indicators for 2014

The Sales kick-off went quite well. Now is the time to take one more look at what 2014 looks like from the vantage point of forecasting before real constraints set in.

Economic forecasters have long utilized ‘leading’ and other “indicators” as a barometer to predict where the economy will be headed in the future. Inspired, we have pulled together the following ‘early’ indicators that can provide useful ingredients in influencing if not generating a Company’s forecast. While all forecasts are off, early indicators can be used to understand the ‘trajectory’ and a portion of the variance in the forecasts that is otherwise hard to estimate.

Here are some early indictors and macro-data[i] as you craft your forecast for 2014.

Early indicators – the Macro

Weather events & the US – Climate .. or at least the weather took center stage early in January as temperatures plunged in vast swaths of the US disrupting life and business. The near term effects have been significant but not severe. The initial price tag of the big chill is placed at $5Billion (as of early January 2014). Doesn’t appear devastating given nearly 200 Million people were affected. However, long-term effects should be lesser to none.

The good news – the US economy turned in a fair 2013 (3.2% GDP growth in Q4, 2013 versus 1.9% for the year) and early indicators suggest 3% for 2014. In the near-term the US certainly seems to be back on track, and maybe at the wheel in terms of driving the global recovery.

Estimated Impact – Of storm – Near-term only (3 weeks to 2 months); US Growth – stable for 9-12 months[ii]

OECD-world-economy-pickup-picture-small
From the Telegraph; Photo: AFP
from:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9079757/OECD-sees-signs-of-world-economy-picking-up.html

Emerging markets – Short-term growth prospects have been hurt. Turkey made headlines with an egregious interest rate hike in January. However, emerging market countries as far-flung and diverse as Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia and India seem to be facing stiff economic headwinds too. Brazil seems drawn into a stagflation, just months from the big kick-off!

Estimated Impact – Near to Mid-term (9 to 18 months depending on markets)

China’s growth phenomenon – China’s slowdown has arrived per data and economists – 7.7% GDP growth in 2013 Year-over-Year, versus 7.8% growth the year before.  While debate is split about future direction of this important market, all data points to a gradual deceleration and not an absence of growth. Structurally, data regarding the supply-side limits are cause for bigger concern (China’s working age population fell by 2.44 Million in 2013 after falling the year before – The Economist Jan 25th 2014).

Estimated Impact – Near to mid-term slower growth (10 to 12 months); Longer-term growth could be adversely impacted.

Japan and EU – These key developed markets still seem to be stuck in neutral with dangers of deflation not gone.

Estimated Impact – Tepid growth. Foggy at best for the next 6-9 months

Housing starts – A key “leading” indicator of future economic activity is in positive territory in the US, Germany and England (Jan 2014 compared to a year ago).

Estimated Impact – Could imply some progress for Construction and related businesses (home products, home solar products, other home/consumer products).

Early indicators – the Micro

New orders and new customers – Both are good early indicators

Orders for new products –are valuable early indicator, especially for industries such as the Hi-Tech electronics industry that rely heavily on new products for significant portions of their revenue stream. For example, for the Wireless networking industry, how are the orders coming in for the 11ac products (based on new networking standard) and how are the prices trending.

Inventory (especially Channel Inventory) & lead-times – are key early indicators. While channel inventories are typically co-managed, tracking this can provide valuable clues.

Backlog – A very good gauge in the near-term to establish revenue trend. However, this needs to be taken with a pinch or heaps of salt. Why? This depends on how effective are your supply chain fulfillment operations.

And that’s where the rub is – since some of these indicators depend on a ‘healthy forecast’ so we are back to the ‘chicken and egg’ problem.

These are a few of the key ingredients to consider as ‘early indicators’ in updating or building your forecast – at least for the mid-term: 0 to 6 months.

Overcast or Sunny? For those who dare to Forecast

Even with the best processes and systems the age-old truth holds – All Forecasts are incorrect, especially at the get-go. However companies can disproportionately benefit if they:

i)                   Include ‘early indicators’ in the forecasting process in a simple way

ii)                 Make Forecasting (the process) one of the book-ends of the Demand Planning process, which flows seamlessly as a part of the overall Sales & Ops Planning and execution process

And yes, lets plan to loop back after the proverbial dust has settled on the quarter (or, quarters) to figure out how far off was the Forecasted Demand. And while we are at it.. why not find out why, and how the indicators have changed. As the adage goes..

“Forecasting is the art of saying what will happen, and then explaining why it didn’t! ”

-Anonymous

[i] Several secondary sources used – The Economist from Jan 25th 2014 to Feb 21st; Conference Board at:
https://www.conference-board.org/data/bcicountry.cfm?cid=1

[ii] All ‘estimated impact’ notes are wild guesses based on secondary sources research

2013 Takeaways, Forecasting the Leaps in 2014

As we prepare for another spin around the sun, we found it fitting to reflect back on 2013 learnings, and take a glimpse at our crystal ball for the journey ahead in 2014

Takeaways – 2 short stories

Thanks to interactions with our customers, partners and other practitioners, the year was chock-a-block full of learnings. 2 highlights:

1) How does a young company know when they have entered the Operating or ‘O’-Zone?  Over the last 4+ years we had the privilege of watching a company (Ruckus Wireless www.ruckuswireless.com) blossom into a significant player in a newer segment of the networking industry. As a solution provider, we have worked and thought hard about the development lifecycles of high growth, high change industries for over a decade, wondering how & when a company knows that they have come of age, or entered the critical ‘O’-Zone, as we define it. O for Operating. As defined in a previous blog (http://bit.ly/MemoToChiefExec ) young Product companies that enter the O-Zone see big changes- from shipping 10s or 100s of units a month of a handful of products, they are quickly thrust into a bigger, rapidly growing Operation – 1000s, potentially tens of 1000s of units being shipped, and this transition can be a mean one. Managing this transition requires the ambidextrous qualities of careful orchestration as well as rapid, intuitive decision-making and execution.

This year we got some great data-points. Those at the forefront of Supply and Sales Operations functions– Order Fulfillment, Supply Chain, Channel Sales managers – enjoy a key vantage point to see this transition as it unfolds. This valuable insight (that a young Product company has entered the O-Zone) if utilized in a timely manner can be harnessed for a greater Operating advantage that can be sustainable over several years.

2) Where do the Highest Impact Collaboration initiatives spring from? How? – As young companies enter the Operating Zone of their development cycle, processes and systems related to collaboration cannot be left to chance or management directives. Systematic Collaboration becomes especially critical between functions that may appear to have conflicting objectives and metrics in the near-term – for example, Sales focus on Revenue Growth and Ops on Cost Control. However, collaboration cannot be regimented through management directives. The genesis of high impact collaboration initiatives happens usually in the trenches, and its success rests exclusively on the efforts of those that get the work done. Take the case of ProductCo – a Product Company (all names changed for anonymity).

Collaboration-Tasked

As volumes have grown quickly at ProductCo, fulfilling orders in a timely manner has become challenging for Operations. Shelley in Supply Chain Ops figures out that she ships a portion of products every week to the same Distribution partners and her colleague on the Channel Sales side – Julia – needs support. Support, so she can systematically compile sales data, interact with her Distribution partners effectively to understand downstream demand and provide quick signals back to Shelley in Ops, with all the data literally at her fingertips. Shelley (Supply Chain) runs this need by her manager, who points them to a systems vendor for brainstorming. Out of Julia (Sales) interactions with the vendor springs a collaborative system which will yield data and demand insights for the ProductCo in the near-term and on an ongoing basis. No major hullabaloo over the choice of systems, just a single-minded focus on working jointly with the vendor, across functions to improve the customer experience – through faster and accurate collaboration utilizing fresh data. All this happened because the initial thought to change came from within, was nurtured by a progressive management and collaboration culture, and effectively implemented working with a solution vendor as a partner.

Leaping forward in 2014.. and beyond

a) Collaborating systematically across functions and partners will gain traction going beyond cookie-cutter approaches : 2014 will see the onset of specialization in a critical collaboration area- Sales & Operations Planning and Execution. Dynamic companies will demand more than the cookie cutter approaches that have been offered to date. Industry specialization, smarter demand management methods, more tailored data and workflow linkages which will result in a faster and smarter collaboration between Sales, Supply Chain and their partners.

b) Leading companies and younger aspirants will refocus on profitability and away from a singular focus on Revenue growth only– Whether motivated by competition, financial valuations, cost of capital or more mundane business prudence, leading Product companies will focus back to product and operational profitability, and will be rewarded richly (http://reut.rs/1hagYpN ). Those that fall short will start seeing their valuations drop, resulting in erosion in market standing over time. Profitable Revenue growth will become the mantra of those who are at the head of the pack and intend to stay there.

c) System Implementation will capture center stage as a core success factor : As the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) website revealed (http://bit.ly/ObamacareIssues), bringing a website “up” is no guarantee of its success. Systems implementation requires a rich, complex set of interconnected activities to be completed in a timely and cost effective manner. This fate has also befallen many a system implementations in the private sector too. Since private companies can afford to throw a blanket of secrecy over such bungling, we hear only of the spectacular failures (http://ubm.io/JpGedn). 2014 and beyond will bring renewed focus to the arts and sciences of effective systems implementation.

Wishing you a Leap forward in 2014!!

Memo to the Chief Executive – Have you looked at this Critical Collaboration as you prepare for growth?

To The Chief Executive, Dynamic Startup,

The tide is turning. Channel partners and key customers are moving fast to your products..

Just as you were preparing to hear the beautiful humming sound of a well-oiled Operating machine shipping products out – you hear some ugly, jarring noises –

‘Hot-selling product has gone on allocation’

‘Big Channel partners are getting frustrated, as lead times start creeping up’

What happened? The Critical ‘O’-Zone

First, the good news – You have reached a major inflection point in your development cycle. You are no longer a small, obscure supplier waiting for the next large order. Orders are now waiting for you. Congratulations!

The not-so-good news – these orders will not wait long before they jump ship to a competitor.. Channel partners may divert attention to these competitors too.. So, what happened?

You just entered what we call the ‘O’ Zone (the “Operating” Zone). This is that part of your lifecycle (“zone”) when customers want to see you Operate like clockwork– shipping out 10x, 100x or more volume than before, yet meeting delivery dates globally, at attractive price points.

Image

What happens in this vital phase of your Company’s development cycle is going to be determined in a big way by a critical collaboration – Near Real-time Collaboration between your Sales and Manufacturing/ Supply Chain Operations (Ops) team.

What’s causing these pains? No ‘growing pains’ is not a good label. Here is a critical one–

Divergent metrics & its impact on Sales & Operations

Your Sales team is focused on hyper-growth – signing up new Channel partners, winning new deals with end customers despite tough competition.

They are totally focused on order volume (Revenue) metrics, and compensated appropriately. So, they make sure they open up the gates and get more customers, more partners and more orders in. But hold on!

Do they have enough time to pivot to their Ops partners – give them a heads up about new customers, what product forecasts will be like?

Your Ops team, on the other hand, has an increasingly complex balancing act as demand takes off. They can grow their Supply Networks – to an extent (signing up new sources – new CM/ ODMs, new suppliers, etc.) to gain extra capacity, but then they hit the brick wall – of ‘Cost’ centered metrics.

The strains start to show in interactions between Sales & Ops.

The offshoot  of all this is not pretty – As orders increase, Ops fulfillment can be in lock step only for a little while, after which demand and supply diverge. For Ops, it becomes a guessing game –

Q. What will Sales sell? How much buffer stock should we keep?

For Sales it becomes a hand-wringing exercise, as they field questions from customers –

Q. When will our orders ship? Why can’t you deliver it sooner?

With ‘Keep cost down’ as the guiding principle for Ops, it becomes a crazy dash to expedite when demand swings up with little notice, flying goods over instead of the more inexpensive modes (sea, rail or road) – depleting margins.

The human costs are bigger – anxieties mount as Sales & Ops try to play a game which looks somewhat like – catch the ball ‘blindfolded’.

Key to growth – A Vital, Systematic collaboration

In the O-Zone (operating zone) we need to play carefully – Pay special heed to the needs of this collaboration which is vital for growth –

Between Sales & Supply Chain Operations

To start off – Metrics need to be aligned.

How about rallying both Sales & Ops around ‘Profitable Growth’ metrics?

Let’s discuss it as a team at the leadership levels first. At a minimum – Sales, Supply Chain Operations, Operational Finance and you, should participate. The dividends of playing smart in the O-Zone are huge – Growth with Profitability – A distinct Operating Advantage. We, at Zyom, will be glad to help and explain further.