Corporate Consultant - ACM Consulting Inc

Being a visionary

posted May 01, 2009 by thornhillguy | Be the First to Comment

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What is the role of a leader? It is to transform their organization. That is challenging given these tougher times, but this is when leaders are most needed to provide direction and vision to their organization. This is also when there is the greatest opportunity for leaders to drive their organization in a new direction. We are in a time when new theories are being tested and new paradigms are being created. Leaders must focus on steering their organization through the choppy waters that we are currently in. This means providing motivation, vision and direction to their organization. This means looking for opportunity where others find barriers. This means finding new and creative ways to interact with customers and business partners. This means pushing the business forward while others are contracting. Leaders that react in this way will be riding the river of success for years to come.

The power of speech

posted April 28, 2009 by thornhillguy | Be the First to Comment

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I am sitting in an airport lounge reflecting on a speech that I just delivered on raising the bar of supply chain strategy. It went well, but no one gave me a standing ovation or anything. It did make me realize what it takes to deliver a great speech. You need to keep the audience engaged with anecdotes and examples and you need to deliver valuable information at every turn. Reading from a bunch of Powerpoint slides does not cut it anymore. They keep the speech too structured and predictable.

The next speech I give will have less slides than I am comfortable with to force me to focus on the content in the delivery not the content on the screen. Great speeches have nothing to do with visuals or gimmicks, they have to do with engaging material and a flow that makes sense. None of us will be perfect, but we certainly should be improving our ability to communicate a message without visual aids.

Bringing sustainability to your business

posted April 27, 2009 by thornhillguy | Be the First to Comment

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Is environmental sustainability in business just a fad that we are going through as we try to make this world better for our children and grand-children? The answer is no, but not for the reasons that you may think. There are many reasons why sustainability and business will go hand in hand for years to come and here are two of them: 1. Sustainability saves money - when looking at your company's supply chain and making it more sustainable, the improvements that you make will have a positive impact on your company's bottom line. When looking to increase fill rates of trucks or reduce logistics costs or source from suppliers that use recyclable materials or reduce your packaging size, you are saving money. These actions result in reduced fuel usage, reduced power consumption, reduced waste disposal costs and the opportunity to find more cost effective methods of travel (rail vs air, etc.). It almost seems as though sustainability is really only a byproduct of running an efficient supply chain. 2. Sustainability as a competitive advantage - customers and consumers are now looking for products that are made from recyclable materials and companies that have no carbon footprint. Using environmental considerations as a part of buying criteria is only in its infancy for consumers and organizations. As this develops and becomes ingrained in our decision-making processes, it will only increase the desire for sustainable products and encourage more companies to dive in, whether to stay ahead of the game or only to catch up. It is still a few years until the corporate decision-making paradigm shifts to having tangible environmental criteria built into it, but all signs are that the way we make decisions now is not the way that we will make them in the future. I suppose this is a good thing because we are shifting (or evolving) as our world evolves.

How does #7 on the Fortune 500 go undetected - just ask Ford

posted April 24, 2009 by thornhillguy | Be the First to Comment

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Amidst all of this talk of bailouts and closures for the auto industry, Ford has been conspicuous by its absence in all of the discussion. Why is that? It is because, unlike his counterparts at Chrysler and GM, Alan Mulally, the President and CEO of Ford, has figured out how to clean up his own house. He cut production, he cut costs, he improved the design of the cars to meet customer demands and he was able to get some concessions from the auto unions. But most importantly, he was able to do this without going cap-in-hand to the government for bailout money. Wow, that sounds strangely like how to run an effective business. The amazing part about it is that he has managed to do this with little press compared to his other Detroit counterparts. Now let's put this in perspective. Ford is still going to lose billions of dollars this year, but they actually beat Wall Street's estimate of how much they were going to lose, which kind of sounds like they are the best of the worst. But I suppose there is reason for optimism in that we may have seen the worst of this economy and we have at least one US car company that seems to be able to avoid the bankruptcy courts. Mulally should be recognized for his bohemian efforts in leading the turnaround of Ford and he should get credit for doing what his colleagues at Chrysler and GM cannot seem to do, make the best of a bad situation.

Strong leadership in weak times

posted April 23, 2009 by thornhillguy | Be the First to Comment

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Bonnie Brooks, CEO of the Bay, has taken on an intriguing challenge - how do you grow sales in a weak economy? Not only has she taken on the challenge, but she is projecting sales growth for the Bay in the coming year. Common sense tells us that is not possible, but great leaders tells us that it is. Ms. Brooks has unveiled a plan to dump unprofitable brands and bring in new lines to upsell more products to the Bay's target market. Why is this a good move in a weak economy? Because the customers are already in the store. Why not offer more products that would interest them? Why not offer those products in locations where most of the foot traffic happens to be? What Ms Brooks is doing seems bold, but when you think about it, it only makes sense. You already have a customer in your store buying your products, so you offer them more products that they are interested in and they buy them. Seems like pretty simple math to me. The customer is going to buy them from somewhere and you are offering an easy alternative. I applaud Ms Brooks for pushing her plan to add new mid and high-end product lines at affordable prices. People are not always looking for prices to be slashed, but they are looking for quality goods at reasonable prices. If you can offer that, you will come out ahead of the game. As people's disposable income eventually increases, they will still want quality goods at reasonable prices, they will just want more of them.

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