MasterClass:  Bridging The Gap Between The Physical
And Financial Supply Chain For Working Capital, Sales
Growth And Profit Optimisation.

This Masterclass will be held at:

JJ’s on the Park  - Ratu Sukuna Park, Suva, Fiji Islands. November 4&5, 2008

For more programme details click here

“Companies with optimised Financial Supply Chains have 30% to 35% better market capitalisation than companies that havent.  However forging the links between Finance, Tax and Operational departments is hard, particularly as supply chains enlarge and globalise“

OBA in conjunction with London Business School have produced the 2nd in the series of reports on the Global Supply Chain - this time the subject is Product Innovation.

On the eve of the launch of arguably Apple’s most innovative product (The Apple iPhone 3G), we look at some of the biggest challenges facing companies today in developing and bringing innovative new products to market.

The report is the conclusion of a three month programme of research and a global survey of over 130 companies. It outlines the biggest issues companies are facing with Product Innovation, where high performing companies excel, and the potential to bring companies together from different industries to exchange ideas, tools and experience.

You can read a summary of the report here

These global annual reports form part of the innovation exchange series; which bring together FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies from many different sectors around a specific Supply Chain topic.

For more information visit the website www.innovation-exchange.com.

Over the past year OBA has been leading the way in bringing companies together to solve each others business challenges - the results have been remarkable.

This year we have taken this approach one stage further and developed a Global Benchmarking tool; SCi (Supply Chain Index).

For more details on the approach see here

This is a unique way of benchmarking & translating some of the best ideas, processes & ways of working from the worlds leading companies - into your organisation

The Supply Chain index will:

• provide an invaluable peer group comparison and assess your company’s performance highlighting the gaps
• compare and develop opportunities to optimise your cost base and make a positive impact on the P&L
• provide focus for a series of company exchange visits that connect you with some of the worlds top performing organisations

The results so far have helped companies develop areas of focus, build in “World Class” thinking into their transformational programmes and shifted business performance and motivation up a gear.

The Model For Future Success From OBA

This Is A Unique Way Of Benchmarking & Translating Some Of The Best Ideas, Processes & Ways Of Working From The Worlds Leading Company’s - Into Your Organisation

London Business School will be helping OBA to conduct the latest cross industry research that will help to understand some of the real characteristics and capabilities of company’s with Winning Supply Chains.

The conclusions of this research will be presented at the quarterly Innovation-Exchange event focussed on Winning Supply Chains Of The Future. This will give you an opportunity to discuss and share the answers, tools and techniques that some of the worlds best performing companies deploy in this area.

As part of this research we are conducting a questionnaire to reflect your views and perspective on the challenges you face in your supply chain.

All survey participation is non-attributable and participants will have the opportunity to receive a copy of the conclusions.

The results will be published in July 2008.

For more information on the conclusion of this research and our accompanying rapid supply chain benchmarking tool please contact info@obaconsulting.com

OBA will be chairing this Global Conference on overcoming the challenges of S&OP (see brochure here).

This is a unique opportunity to Q&A and gain valuable insight on:

• valuable and effective collaborative forecasting techniques for continuous improvement from - Carlsberg Breweries
• the impact of performance metrics on the supply chain from - UPS International
• how collaboration works from - Heinz (UK)
• using S&OP to consolidate diverse sources of demand information to drive consensus forecasts and better decision-making from - Johnson Diversey
• establishing buy-in in the value stream when implementing S&OP from - TDC

Find Out The Biggest Challenges Organisations Face - And The 6 Critical Success Factors For Implementation.

There are tens of millions of pounds in financial savings opportunities that can only be realised by developing smart, financially optimised supply chain operations. In reality, the potential impact supply chain has on financial performance has yet to be fully realised. 

This masterclass explores the benefits of linking finance and supply chain.  For more details take a look at the brochure here

In conjunction with London Business School, OBA is pleased to announce the publication of the results from The Global Survey of Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) 2007.

The survey polled over 300 hundred multi-national companies from 16 different industry sectors

“This new survey by The Office for Business Architecture (OBA) and London Business School finds that whilst some organisations using S&OP have achieved significant benefits - many companies still haven’t overcome the many challenges to achieve a successful implementation.”

Find Out The Biggest Challenges Organisations Face - And The 6 Critical Success Factors For Implementation.

“Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has been in use for well over twenty years, but its real value has taken some time to emerge widely, particularly for large multi-regional organisations that use it to manage highly complex global supply chains.

One of the perceived key benefits of S&OP is to allow companies to align supply and demand in a way that maximizes customer service, minimises working capital expenditure and makes sure that manufacturing unit costs are competitive.

Even today these objectives remain a significant challenge for many organisations.” This definitive full report, with insight, challenges, successes and critical learning’s from FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies - is available to purchase now (see Publications and Research).

This Global S&OP survey forms part of the Innovation Exchange series - where over 20 multi-national companies will come together to discuss, exchange ideas and insights and solve issues on S&OP.

For more details on this please see the innovation exchange website at www.innovation-exchange.com.

“Consultant-free” Consulting - Bill Bronsky Interviews With Top Consultant

Consultant-free consulting?

Our management consultancy columnist, Mick James, this week talks to Bill Bronsky, Managing Director of The Office of Business Architecture, about a new concept in the management consultancy business model.  You can read the full interview here

OBA links up with LBS

OBA has linked up with London Business School to provide support for the research topics identified by the recently launched innovation-exchange (www.innovation-exchange.com).

The Innovation-Exchange is a peer-to-peer network that relies upon the imagination and experience of its members in tackling the business challenges of our time. It is an event-driven community that meets when it chooses and works through a creative process that unleashes the expertise in the room to find novel insights and share learning’s. Supported by leading edge research, a total-design approach, a bespoke state-of-the-art collaborative environment and a team of creative facilitators, the Innovation-Exchange takes a unique perspective on the conversations that matter.

The Innovation-Exchange polled over 300 businesses to find out what todays biggest hot topics are, the results were:

Product Innovation

The disconnect between Supply & Demand

Process driven change

These three hot topics will be the main subject of the research and the results will be shared and developed during the innovation-exchange events. Over 50 FTSE 100 companies have already registered for the innovation-exchange.

To find out more about the Innovation-Exchange and how it works take a look at the website www.innovation-exchange.com.

Top Consultants Fast Growing Firms….read the full report