Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Returning home from my Dubai holiday I spent some time in Duty Free electrical section looking at everything I do not need or in fact, do not know how to operate and never will. I was actually in the market for a new electric shaver as mine had…

A word that strikes fear into even the most hardened FMCG/Brewing/Pharmaceutical business professionals. A similar reaction occurs when heard in the context of family discussions about investments, celebrations and holidays. Can you guess the word…

People who work in fast food outlets – I really cannot label them as restaurants – must have specific training in dealing with non-standard orders. Can you imagine the temptation to groan when in a crowded outlet someone asks for a Muck Chicken…

I regularly rattle on about how poor sales forecasting or dire planning or the absence of S&OP causes untold grief to FMCG, Brewing and Pharmaceutical companies. Of course, these failings and many others certainly result in lost sales, write offs,…

Is anybody good at forecasting? Meteorologists have had centuries of trying and still the weather catches us by surprise. I think this is particularly so in UK where weather related discussions are an important part of daily life. If people paid no…

While you are tackling your day to day routine of crises, meetings, strategy and more while fending off the results pressure from global HQ you often lose a grip on the reality of how your company is operating. Creeping inefficiency can become the…

Probably sitting at number 2 in the excuses offered when sales did not happen as planned is parallel or grey trade. Without doubt greys, “passing off” and counterfeits can have an impact on FMCG sales but I was surprised how they only became…

Back in the murky depths of time before the birth of humanity and Supply Chains, only dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Fighting and killing their way around the bubbling, steaming globe before an asteroid cut short their existence, allegedly. Sharks,…

You could hear the groans around the room when the CEO announced to the company that they had decided to finally implement Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP). Enchange was asked to facilitate the implementation - no, they were not groaning at…

Our guest blogger Stefan Cucu returns with a blog about dancing...... Every year on my father’s birthday we eat the same cakes and say the same things. The things that are common but very important, e.g. the family and health. Then father blows out…