Route to Market & Supply Chain Blog

Dear Santa, I have been a very good FMCG CEO this year, I promise. If you want, you can check with my shareholders. They know how good I have been this year. Apart from the out of stocks of course, oh and the little mistake where we had to write…

Christmas is coming around quickly so who better than Noddy Holder and Slade to suggest you give a Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) process to your business as a present. This Christmas song has been heard at Christmas every year since 1973! If…

Ok, so maybe not for life but FMCG Distributors will have a significant impact on your sales performance, probably your personal bonus and therefore your CEO career! How have you treated them this year? Were they the usual pain in the proverbial -…

Did you know that the Christmas season originally ran from December 25th to January 6th which was in turn popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas? Christmas is becoming like old age; it slowly creeps up on you without you really noticing. I can…

Like students cramming for examinations, a squirrel storing up acorns for dark, cold, winter hibernation or a politician telling all sorts of lies before an election, time is running out and that time is nigh for FMCG/Pharma CEO’s. If your business…

I am not going to pretend I wrote this blog once again but when I came to sit down and look at the last quarter of the year I could not really see any difference from last year. The same challenges are clearly there and what is astonishing is that…

The summer of 2004. It was 3 weeks after I had changed the job and the company. It was a new (Supply Chain) position in an FMCG company with many people speaking native French. At that time, the mayor of Bucharest- the future Romanian president…

I know I am prone to rattle on about Sales & Operational Planning (S&OP) but seeing the benefits being delivered to previously struggling business is extremely motivating for a confirmed “techy” like myself. If only we could advertise such successes…

I have travelled quite a lot over the years and tried to add one new country each year until I stumbled at 45. Many were holidays but a majority were on business with very few opportunities available to actually see the place. “Oh, you must be so…

When I first came across Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) I was sceptical of yet another ”blue sky” approach to pursuing manufacturing excellence. Surely, this would soon be replaced by the next set of buzz-word initials dreamed up by smart-suited…

I am approaching end of tether time with some potential clients. If they were our clients then they would not have to endure the routine monthly disruption. Why do major FMCG producers always think they are in the right and their TT partners are…

The 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil is fast approaching, yes it is football not soccer. As a kid you played “footy” where I grew up and if you said anything like “soccy” you would need to be a fast runner. The England team has completed missing…

I witnessed an intense match of blame tennis recently in the board room of a popular FMCG multinational. The intensity and aggression on display presented a mental image of a tennis match with John McEnroe, Ilie Nastase, Goran Ivanisevic and Marat…

As we celebrate St George's Day and the birthday of William Shakespeare (also the date he died!) what would the great bard think about S&OP in FMCG and Pharmaceuticals? Is this a plan which I see before me, The numbers are as we planned? Come, let…

“What do you call a smiling, friendly and courteous person at a sales conference?” The caterer. “How do you save a drowning supply chain guy?” Take your foot off his head. “What is black and brown and looks really good on a sales guy?” A Rottweiler.…