Send us Fan Mail As a procurement leader, if you are too focused on seeking discounts, sometimes you might lose sight that the cost of spend could be higher than the discount you might be seeking. Also, as the number of SKUs increases in your organization, the SG&A costs rise at an increasing rate than your top line because of increased marginal overhead with each SKU. The cost of spend is a key metric that manufacturers and distributors need to measure and control. Or you might hit the grow...
Sep 13, 2021•46 min•Ep. 147
Send us Fan Mail Cybersecurity issues are becoming more and more common. As the adversaries and state-funded agencies get sophisticated in their capabilities, most businesses will need to rethink their cybersecurity strategy. It will be even more critical for regulated companies such as aerospace and defense and medical devices. Also, as we advance with our capabilities with industry4.0, OT security will be even more critical. What can executives do to educate themselves and prepare for enterpri...
Sep 10, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 146
Send us Fan Mail For e-commerce sites, the conversion rate is perhaps the most critical metric. Many sites focus on getting tons of traffic, but what is the point in having that traffic if they don't convert. When it comes to improving conversion rate, various factors drive the conversion rate, including page speed, expectations of your users, and flow or navigation. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant experti...
Sep 09, 2021•58 min•Ep. 145
Send us Fan Mail The most critical factor in winning or losing a deal is always timing. And the faster you convert your customer, the faster you answer all of their questions, and the faster you ship it to them, you can outrun your competition. To do so, you need to think about the speed to your customers and suppliers. This speed requires cross-functional alignment and everyone operating on one system and with process harmony. In today's episode, we have our guest, Rich Sade, who describes his ...
Sep 08, 2021•39 min•Ep. 144
Send us Fan Mail Balancing your day job and executing a transformation project in parallel could be frustrating. Your team might look up to you to make the most crucial decisions when you might not fully understand the implications of those decisions. To avoid this uncomfortable situation, you might want to outsource your role as a sponsor to a third party. But this approach typically fires back as they may create their version of your vision. Additionally, they might not fully understand your b...
Sep 07, 2021•44 min•Ep. 143
Send us Fan Mail As a plant manager or an executive responsible for the P&L of a manufacturing plant, you will need to make several decisions to improve your internal capacity. They could be adding more bodies, equipment or adding a new location. Unfortunately, if you don't have data to substantiate them, it may feel as if you are investing money in improving your capacity but not realizing tangible benefits. In today's episode, we have our guest, Dave Westrom, who describes the importance o...
Sep 06, 2021•40 min•Ep. 142
Send us Fan Mail If you are a growing siloed organization, you will have puddles of data sitting inside every department. You could also have hundreds of unused reports on top of your ERP system that you might not even be aware of. If you want to avoid growing pains because of data, you need centralized ownership and strategy with clearly identified systems for their roles and responsibilities. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn wh...
Sep 03, 2021•57 min•Ep. 141
Send us Fan Mail Mastering SEO is no longer optional for ecommerce companies and manufacturers. If you are starting on your SEO journey, you will need to make decisions between SEO and PPC strategies. You will also need to understand the nuances of keyword strategies to identify the right targets that will help you meet your goals. Finally, you need to understand how to compare various channels such as PPC and SEO. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live int...
Sep 02, 2021•59 min•Ep. 140
Send us Fan Mail If you are ready to expand your e-commerce footprint, you have several choices. For example, suppose you have been selling to the most popular channels, such as Amazon in North America. In that case, you might want to explore other channels such as Walmart, Alibaba, or Etsy. Or you might want to explore some of the international markets such as the UK, India, or Brazil. But the decision is not as simple as that as you need to compare the channels in each country, understand regu...
Sep 01, 2021•41 min•Ep. 139
Send us Fan Mail The journey of ISO could feel overwhelming with the amount of standardization and documentation required. But if your machine shop never served a regulated industry, it could be a great start as you expand your market to other sectors such as aerospace, defense, or automotive. You will not only be required to change your processes and procedures, but you need to game up on training and documentation. In today's episode, we have our guest, Derek Hall, who describes the importance...
Aug 31, 2021•41 min•Ep. 138
Send us Fan Mail Due to how companies function in the startup phase and evolve, most of them operate in silos because it's hard to find cross-functional talent. In addition, the cross-functional processes are perceived to be slow. It's also tough to train people in multiple disciplines. As a result, most SMBs will have one person responsible for each function: sales, purchasing, AR, AP, HR, etc. While this siloed nature may help you sail through the startup phase, it's the cross-functional align...
Aug 30, 2021•38 min•Ep. 137
Send us Fan Mail Managing digital projects have never been easier. While there have been tons of attempts to improve the process with Agile methodologies, the timeline, budget, and scope are still tough to manage. There are several explanations as to why digital projects are harder. For example, each digital project is fairly unique, even if it is repeatable ERP implementation. Then you have the problems of invisibility. Managing digital projects have always been art and science. That's probably...
Aug 27, 2021•59 min•Ep. 136
Send us Fan Mail E-commerce opportunity is highly lucrative. As an executive responsible for e-commerce success, you will come across several options and opportunities. But if you don't know how to plan for e-commerce, you might be out of cash without knowing what went wrong. For example, it could happen as you overcommitted in channels that didn't perform to your expectations. Or you stocked too much inventory in the hope of getting significant traffic from your e-commerce efforts. E-commerce b...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 135
Send us Fan Mail If you are a small business operating as a single entity with one warehouse and site, most of your suppliers will have a handshake relationship. But as you grow, you are going to add more sites. Each site may have its procurement functions and may manage its supply chain. This is where having accurate supplier intelligence and a comprehensive risk profile of suppliers becomes important. In today's episode, we have our guest, Matt Keyes, who describes the importance of supplier i...
Aug 25, 2021•33 min•Ep. 134
Send us Fan Mail Every user in a company has different needs when it comes to completing their jobs. The warehouse users, in particular, are worried about how fast they can move the goods and organize accordingly. Therefore, to be effective with warehousing operations and organization, you need tons of data that can help you analyze the most efficient way of running them. In today's episode, we have our guest, Roy Strauss, who describes WMS systems and how they can help meet your operational ope...
Aug 24, 2021•42 min•Ep. 133
Send us Fan Mail Automation technologies are advancing at a rapid pace. There are tons of options available whether you are looking to automate some of the operations of your production process. Or you may be automating process steps such as trailer unloading that are essential but may not be billable. And the more repeatable tasks you can automate in your facility, the better quality products you can produce, and the more cost-effective your products will be. But to take full advantage of these...
Aug 23, 2021•41 min•Ep. 132
Send us Fan Mail To understand the total cost of ownership of software, one of the critical pieces that you need to understand would be the software license and pricing. There are several nuances of the licensing model with several variables that could impact your total costs. The licensing and pricing nuances could be as simple as whether you are buying a single-user or multi-user license, or it could be as complex as whether you would still be paying for your license if the user leaves the com...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 131
Send us Fan Mail The game has completely changed when it comes to serving customers in the new world of e-commerce. The personal touch that existed in the traditional world may not exist in the e-commerce world. The customers also operate in self-serve mode, so they need a lot of information to research and make decisions. You might think that the role of salespeople may not be relevant in the new world of e-commerce, but their role is even more relevant as they need to become coaches and provid...
Aug 19, 2021•56 min•Ep. 130
Send us Fan Mail How vital could bookkeeping be? Isn't it all about capturing all the transactions and creating a bunch of statements to file taxes? Well, strategic financial planning is where your real opportunities reside. If you are not strategic about it, you may be chasing wrong opportunities that may not have as much financial value as you would if you were strategic with your bookkeeping. In today's episode, we have our guest, Jeannie Doherty, who discusses how strategic bookkeeping diffe...
Aug 18, 2021•44 min•Ep. 129
Send us Fan Mail Today's consumer requires most stores to provide the same experience that they will get from larger brands. These experiences could include click-and-collect, also known as buy-online-pick-up-at-store, integrated loyalty across channels, and omnichannel experience across all the channels. These experiences require you to have your inventory centralized and reconciled across channels. Or there will be friction to the process with significant customer experience issues such as not...
Aug 17, 2021•46 min•Ep. 128
Send us Fan Mail Managing aerospace projects is just like solving puzzles. You have many moving pieces, including managing your customers' expectations, coordinating with your supply chain, and meeting the specification requirements. But when it comes to the NPD process, a project manager's job is even harder due to increased risk and the lack of available data to estimate accurately. Estimating and delivering a project within time and budget requires tons of data and experience to forecast all ...
Aug 16, 2021•51 min•Ep. 127
Send us Fan Mail If you plan for your next digital transformation initiative, you need to decide whether you will opt for an on-prem system or cloud. You might ask why anyone would even worry about on-prem in 2021. Well, there are several reasons. If you already have an IT infrastructure and are locked into on-prem licenses, the cloud option may be more expensive. You might also want to opt for on-prem if any regulatory constraints require you to be present on the on-prem system. Finally, some p...
Aug 13, 2021•58 min•Ep. 126
Send us Fan Mail The average rate at which the average consumer abandons their shopping cart before making a purchase is 81%. There are countless reasons why consumers leave their shopping carts. These reasons could be legitimate such as unexpected shipping costs. They could also be website functionality issues such as the requirement for a new user account, their tendency to research to buy later, and security concerns. These issues affect conversion, sales, and customer experience. In today's ...
Aug 12, 2021•59 min•Ep. 125
Send us Fan Mail If you are exploring the ISO journey, your current collaboration tools might outgrow your needs driven by ISO compliance. Your current legacy PLM tools may not support collaboration features. If your current processes are manual or done on a spreadsheet, you may be overwhelmed with the tracking and information required to submit to regulatory bodies. Like any other cross-functional process in your organization, your design review processes require multiple teams, including quali...
Aug 11, 2021•41 min•Ep. 124
Send us Fan Mail The processes of most food and beverage businesses are challenging due to government regulations. Still, the distillery business is even trickier due to maintaining inventory through the production process. There is significant inventory tied in the final phases of the production process. Then you don't have access to the final consumer as the government mandates you to go through the distribution channels. Finally, there are significant quality and packaging guidelines that nee...
Aug 09, 2021•44 min•Ep. 122
Send us Fan Mail The majority of digital transformation initiatives fail, and in most cases, they fail because of people issues. When it comes to building digital initiative teams, you need a comprehensive approach. The first batch of champions you have chosen to drive the initiatives may be super excited initially. But their excitement may fall off once they realize the amount of effort involved in driving these initiatives. Then you need to manage the detractors' expectations, or they may be e...
Aug 06, 2021•57 min•Ep. 121
Send us Fan Mail Choosing a platform for your e-commerce is not easy. There are several factors to consider. While SaaS options make buying and maintaining easier, their pricing could be tricky to understand. The hosting for open source options could be cheaper, and the licensing fee might not be applicable with these options. On the other hand, the development and support costs could be more expensive. The SaaS option may require you to use their payment gateway and might take a cut on your rev...
Aug 05, 2021•59 min•Ep. 120
Send us Fan Mail When you start your business, you are going to do everything in your power to survive. You might sell anything and everything to anyone and everyone who has cash. But as you grow, the number of decisions that your team will have to make daily will grow exponentially as well. The more products you maintain, the higher the number of decisions you need to make daily, which causes frustration and chaos. This frustration will grow within your employees, but it will be equally frustra...
Aug 04, 2021•49 min•Ep. 119
Send us Fan Mail Packing is always the bottleneck in most manufacturing facilities and is often blamed for slowing production down. But replacing the packaging equipment is never fun as you need to understand thousands of variables related to machines and their impact on your process. The manufacturers might not understand your processes or product, and you might run into a scenario that the packaging machine may not work for your specific needs. And then you might run into contract issues or fo...
Aug 03, 2021•34 min•Ep. 118
Send us Fan Mail What comes to mind when you think of the most complex business from the viewpoint of business processes? I can almost guarantee that it will not be a poultry business. How hard could the poultry business be to run? Shouldn't it be as simple as raising a bunch of chickens, feeding them corn, and selling eggs and chicken parts? Well, running a poultry business requires tight control of yield and financial processes. There is always a push for higher productivity and yield because ...
Aug 02, 2021•34 min•Ep. 117
