Supply chain: a cross-functional collaboration… or the blinkered approach of functional silos?

A recent post in Purchasing Insight, “What can game theory teach us about Financial Supply Chain Management?” highlights the overall financial impact of paying suppliers as late as possible. The key point is that the working capital cost to supplier usually far outweighs the savings to the customer, thereby increasing the overall cost to the supply chain. The post got me thinking about a much bigger issue: how businesses manage their supply chains – a cross-functional collaboration or a collection of functional silos? Continue reading

Change Management: How to overcome stakeholders’ resistance to change

Following up on some recent tweets on employee motivation and engagement, I was reacquainted with Gleicher’s Formula for Change, published by Beckhard and Harris (also known as Beckhard and Harris’s Change Equation). Although I agreed with the formula when I first saw it several years ago, I rather dismissed it as a statement of the obvious. On reflection, it is a more powerful tool in change management than I first gave it credit. Continue reading