We tend to think of business strategy as essentially timeless, but that's not necessarily the case. A lot of times, yesterday's paradigms are worth about 20 cents.
Art van Bodegraven was, among other roles, chief design officer for the DES Leadership Academy. He passed away on June 18, 2017. He will be greatly missed.
We tend to think of business strategy as essentially timeless, but that's not necessarily the case. A lot of times, yesterday's paradigms are worth about 20 cents.
In the last century, for instance, value propositions tended to center on a few themes:
Price – we are less expensive than the competition (the term "cheaper" was studiously avoided)
People – we are smarter than anybody else
Processes and Products – we've built a better mousetrap, and we've built it a better way.
But these days, we're hearing some new themes, such as:
"We are really easy to work with"
"You ain't seen nothin' 'til you've seen our service"
"We help you make things happen"
"We're in this together."
So what does this mean? Have cost, quality, creativity, and processes fallen off the radar? Not at all. Continuous improvement in value (what the customer gets for the cost, not simply a low unit price) will remain a core objective for companies and for supply chain organizations. Attracting and retaining the right talent will forever be a critical contributor to success. And re-engineering and refining processes for design, planning, execution, quality, communications, and marketplace relevance must be a way of life in a fiercely competitive global economy.
What has changed is that nowadays, everybody claims to have the best people, prices, and processes. And when everyone has them, they're no longer a source of competitive differentiation. They've simply become table stakes—what it takes to be in the game at all.
Enter the Neanderthals
Some are left shaking their heads. "Enough of this soft stuff; we're after hard business results." They've made fun of what they call the "soft stuff" for so long that we've all become a little defensive about it. What they're not getting is that the "soft stuff" is the hard stuff.
To put it another way, what they call the "hard stuff" is not sustainable without the soft stuff. Lowest price might get the first order; shoddy quality might disqualify a supplier from any future sales.
Smart people who are abrasive might get through the bidding process but turn an entire company against them over the course of a working relationship. And bright people will not stay long in a working environment that is not positive and supportive. Perhaps they'll tough it out in a weak economy, but they'll bolt for the door at the first sign of turnaround.
An excellent product without strong service behind it won't score many repeat orders. And processes that don't contribute to strong, timely communications and multi-level relationship building can exhaust an otherwise satisfied customer.
Why is the soft stuff hard?
There are several reasons, and they're all important. And they've got to be mastered before a company can hope to be effective at the hard stuff.
It begins with the reality that people are all wired differently. Left to their own devices, they'll kill off (figuratively) those who aren't pretty much like them. They—at all levels in an organization—need to learn how the "others" are different, and how they can use the differences to create more effective, higher-performing organizations, solutions, products, and processes. In the process, they also need to learn about themselves, their strengths, and their weaknesses.
Then, there's the vital need for alignment, again at all levels. The senior management team has got to be, without reservation, behind a singular vision and mission. Components of the organization must link their efforts with strategic directions and clear supporting objectives. They also need to communicate and collaborate with peer corporate functions for integrated and multi-faceted solutions—and learn to trust those they've been suspicious of in the past.
Finally, all of this vision, collaboration, and communication has to get baked into the corporate DNA. The new way of working together can't afford to be a transient program-of-the-year. Every clerk, every order picker, every salesperson, every IT specialist has to get it.
True story: A company we know of lost one of its best customers because an accounts payable functionary with a bad attitude aggressively dunned the customer for an invoice that had already been paid.
Examples from the real world
You're probably tired of hearing the same old names, but let's give credit where it's due. Who in the brick-and-mortar retail arena is easier to deal with than Nordstrom's? For sure, they don't have the lowest prices. But they are borderline cult-like when it comes to customer service, and their customers are not only happy, but loyal.
How about L.L.Bean in catalog retail? Or Infiniti in automobiles? Or Ritz-Carlton in hospitality?
We'll not name names in the supply chain universe, lest we offend a worthy candidate by omission. But contemplate a logistics service provider (LSP) that thinks more about how to strengthen your position with customers than it does how much to charge for each transaction. Consider the IT specialist who works 24/7, not to finish a "deliverable," but to flush out the bugs in an implementation.
Reflect on your relationship with a service provider who doesn't already "know" the right solution for you, but instead figures out a way to customize a standard solution to fit the needs of both you and your customers. Back to the LSP world, how do you react to a company that wants to invest time and resources in building a long-term relationship with you, rather than try to recoup last year's losses with a series of take-it-or-leave-it rate increases?
The long-term view
In the end, of course, what's important in the hard stuff/soft stuff balancing act is how to do the hard stuff in a way that has legs, in a way that will last over the long pull. The answer lies in beginning with the soft stuff.
Almost any fool can drive a hard bargain once. But he or she is a one-trick pony. Without the foundational infrastructure the soft stuff builds, the bargain is tough to replicate, and impossible to maintain. It's even a Pyrrhic victory in some cases.
We are reminded of the cheese maker that decided to wrestle its carriers to the earth every time out to get the lowest possible rates. Brilliant, until truckload capacity was in short supply in the harvest season, available only to those who had treated the carriers fairly the rest of the year. To quote Monty Python, "Blessed are the cheese makers." Not in this case, though.
States across the Southeast woke up today to find that the immediate weather impacts from Hurricane Helene are done, but the impacts to people, businesses, and the supply chain continue to be a major headache, according to Everstream Analytics.
The primary problem is the collection of massive power outages caused by the storm’s punishing winds and rainfall, now affecting some 2 million customers across the Southeast region of the U.S.
One organization working to rush help to affected regions since the storm hit Florida’s western coast on Thursday night is the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). As it does after most serious storms, the group continues to marshal donated resources from supply chain service providers in order to store, stage, and deliver help where it’s needed.
Support for recovery efforts is coming from a massive injection of federal aid, since the White House declared states of emergency last week for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Affected states are also supporting the rush of materials to needed zones by suspending transportation requirement such as certain licensing agreements, fuel taxes, weight restrictions, and hours of service caps, ALAN said.
E-commerce activity remains robust, but a growing number of consumers are reintegrating physical stores into their shopping journeys in 2024, emphasizing the need for retailers to focus on omnichannel business strategies. That’s according to an e-commerce study from Ryder System, Inc., released this week.
Ryder surveyed more than 1,300 consumers for its 2024 E-Commerce Consumer Study and found that 61% of consumers shop in-store “because they enjoy the experience,” a 21% increase compared to results from Ryder’s 2023 survey on the same subject. The current survey also found that 35% shop in-store because they don’t want to wait for online orders in the mail (up 4% from last year), and 15% say they shop in-store to avoid package theft (up 8% from last year).
“Retail and e-commerce continue to evolve,” Jeff Wolpov, Ryder’s senior vice president of e-commerce, said in a statement announcing the survey’s findings. “The emergence of e-commerce and growth of omnichannel fulfillment, particularly over the past four years, has altered consumer expectations and behavior dramatically and will continue to do so as time and technology allow.
“This latest study demonstrates that, while consumers maintain a robust
appetite for e-commerce, they are simultaneously embracing in-person shopping, presenting an impetus for merchants to refine their omnichannel strategies.”
Other findings include:
• Apparel and cosmetics shoppers show growing attraction to buying in-store. When purchasing apparel and cosmetics, shoppers are more inclined to make purchases in a physical location than they were last year, according to Ryder. Forty-one percent of shoppers who buy cosmetics said they prefer to do so either in a brand’s physical retail location or a department/convenience store (+9%). As for apparel shoppers, 54% said they prefer to buy clothing in those same brick-and-mortar locations (+9%).
• More customers prefer returning online purchases in physical stores. Fifty-five percent of shoppers (+15%) now say they would rather return online purchases in-store–the first time since early 2020 the preference to Buy Online Return In-Store (BORIS) has outweighed returning via mail, according to the survey. Forty percent of shoppers said they often make additional purchases when picking up or returning online purchases in-store (+2%).
• Consumers are extremely reliant on mobile devices when shopping in-store. This year’s survey reveals that 77% of consumers search for items on their mobile devices while in a store, Ryder said. Sixty-nine percent said they compare prices with items in nearby stores, 58% check availability at other stores, 31% want to learn more about a product, and 17% want to see other items frequently purchased with a product they’re considering.
Ryder said the findings also underscore the importance of investing in technology solutions that allow companies to provide customers with flexible purchasing options.
“Omnichannel strength is not a fad; it is a strategic necessity for e-commerce and retail businesses to stay competitive and achieve sustainable success in 2024 and beyond,” Wolpov also said. “The findings from this year’s study underscore what we know our customers are experiencing, which is the positive impact of integrating supply chain technology solutions across their sales channels, enabling them to provide their customers with flexible, convenient options to personalize their experience and heighten customer satisfaction.”
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Two European companies are among the most recent firms to put autonomous last-mile delivery to the test with a project in Bern, Switzerland, that debuted this month.
Swiss transportation and logistics company Planzer has teamed up with fellow Swiss firm Loxo, which develops autonomous driving software solutions, for a two-year pilot project in which a Loxo-equipped, Planzer parcel delivery van will handle last-mile logistics in Bern’s city center.
The project coincides with Swiss regulations on autonomous driving that are expected to take effect next spring.
Referred to as “Planzer–Dynamic Micro-Hub w LOXO,” the project aims to address both sustainability issues and traffic congestion in urban areas.
The delivery vehicle, a Volkswagen ID. Buzz battery-electric minivan, will feature Loxo’s Level 4 Digital Driver navigation software, a highly automated solution that allows driverless operation. The van was retrofitted to include space for two swap boxes for parcel storage.
During the two-year pilot phase, Loxo’s Digital Driver will navigate a commercial vehicle several times a day from Planzer’s railway center to various logistics points in Bern's city center. There, the parcels will be reloaded onto small electric vehicles and delivered to end customers by Planzer’s parcel delivery staff.
Following the completion of the pilot phase, Planzer and Loxo will build on the program for rollout in other Swiss cities, the companies said.
The partners said the project addresses the increasing requirements of urban supply chains and aims to ensure the “scalability of their disruptive solution.” With largely emission-free delivery, it contributes to greater levels of sustainability for the city as a living space, they also said.
“The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it will have a direct impact on society,” Planzer’s CEO and Chairman Nils Planzer said in a statement announcing the project. “We didn't just want to integrate automated technology into existing systems, we wanted to develop a completely new concept and a new business model.”
As the hours tick down toward a “seemingly imminent” strike by East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers, experts are warning that the impacts of that move would mushroom well-beyond the actual strike locations, causing prevalent shipping delays, container ship congestion, port congestion on West coast ports, and stranded freight.
However, a strike now seems “nearly unavoidable,” as no bargaining sessions are scheduled prior to the September 30 contract expiration between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) in their negotiations over wages and automation, according to the transportation law firm Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary.
The facilities affected would include some 45,000 port workers at 36 locations, including high-volume U.S. ports from Boston, New York / New Jersey, and Norfolk, to Savannah and Charleston, and down to New Orleans and Houston. With such widespread geography, a strike would likely lead to congestion from diverted traffic, as well as knock-on effects include the potential risk of increased freight rates and costly charges such as demurrage, detention, per diem, and dwell time fees on containers that may be slowed due to the congestion, according to an analysis by another transportation and logistics sector law firm, Benesch.
The weight of those combined blows means that many companies are already planning ways to minimize damage and recover quickly from the event. According to Scopelitis’ advice, mitigation measures could include: preparing for congestion on West coast ports, taking advantage of intermodal ground transportation where possible, looking for alternatives including air transport when necessary for urgent delivery, delaying shipping from East and Gulf coast ports until after the strike, and budgeting for increased freight and container fees.
Additional advice on softening the blow of a potential coastwide strike came from John Donigian, senior director of supply chain strategy at Moody’s. In a statement, he named six supply chain strategies for companies to consider: expedite certain shipments, reallocate existing inventory strategically, lock in alternative capacity with trucking and rail providers , communicate transparently with stakeholders to set realistic expectations for delivery timelines, shift sourcing to regional suppliers if possible, and utilize drop shipping to maintain sales.