”Close The Gap” - Blog
Our podcast episodes as articles.
Cats and typewriters or: Resilience through contractual building blocks
What have a cat, a typewriter, and Lego blocks in common? They are all part of a story about how to get out of the contractual B2B jungle many companies grow today.
Enjoy!
Surviving and thriving in the first 90 days - the poka-yoke of hiring leaders
Ever had a new job, where getting started was a breeze?
HR supported you, your boss had a good plan to get onboarded, and you got all the necessary contacts and tools laid out in front of you.
If you had, you are one of the few lucky exceptions. Many others have often the distinct feeling of sink or swim. And the higher up in the leadership positions you are, the more you are on your own…
We believe there are great alternatives and look at the topic both from the individual and from the corporate side.
Enjoy!
Functional Outsourcing: Your back-end is other companies’ front-end
Consider this: What if your highly skilled workforce could devote their energy solely to their unique capabilities, driving customer satisfaction and enhancing your bottom line? Imagine a scenario where innovative processes, products, and service solutions take centre stage, while routine, tactical tasks are seamlessly handled by specialized entities.
Is now, with the raise of machine learning and RPA, finally the opportune moment for companies to shed back-end activities?
Enjoy!
Aligning Functional Organisational Design to Company Culture & Markets (Part II)
What is the correct procurement setup? Central, de-central, or hybrid? If you had asked this question before 2015, many of my peers and I would have provided a very different answer then vs now. Life moved on, and today’s world requires more sophisticated, agile functional designs.
This is the second instalment of the mini-series about organisation design. We believe that if you design your organisation in line with the culture and the surrounding markets, the costly need for re-designing and organisational reshuffling can be minimised.
Enjoy!
DPO - Significantly optimising cash flow by changing the focus - mini-series (Part 2)
In part 2 of our mini-series on cash-flow optimization, we hone in on payments to suppliers, covered in Days Payable Outstanding (DPO).
External materials & services purchased are the largest cost block in most product-based companies. Hence, the cash flow improvement leverage is significant. Different from cash trapped in inventory, DPO management needs two to tango.
Why is it, that many companies can’t dance with their suppliers?
Inventory: Significantly optimising cash flow by changing the focus - mini-series (Part 1)
This marks the beginning of a three-part mini-series on the perennial subject of cash flow optimisation, focusing on the manufacturing and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries. The series argues that while finance must report on cash flow, operations should own the metrics. For practitioners along a company's value chain, the three posts can also act as a refresher…Let’s start with inventory!
Creating a digital supply chain twin - operating at the speed of thought
Digital transformation, Internet of Things, blockchain, OpenAI and ChatGPT happen for most companies more in the media and consultant presentations than in their own world. There is scepticism, disbelief, and maybe even panic, followed by short bursts of activism that typically die quickly like fireflies.
So, what shall we do about it, and why?
Procurement - on ‘steroids’ or: improving margins - for real
The times when strategic sourcing was solely a procurement function topic, with the main focus on cost and supply base management, are long gone in most companies.
Today, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters or disruptions are happening far too often for a cost-based, multi-layered value chain.
While the issues getting more and more complex, and the speed of change is dizzying, our internal corporate coping mechanisms often stay as simple and inadequate as 20-30 years before.
So, what needs to change?