In 2017, Newsha Ghaeli and Mariana Matus were deciding whether to leave their labs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, put other job opportunities aside, and dive full-time into founding a wastewater analysis start-up, Biobot. Ghaeli, an architect, and Matus, a computational biologist, had been turning sewage into information about "population health" and now had dreams of turning the data encoded in urine and stool into a viable and impactful business. In plainer terms, they planned to "tap into what you flush down the toilet every day." They'd been told not to. They'd been told their idea was too broad and their skills too narrow. They'd been told they had no defensible intellectual property and limited scalability. They'd been advised to choose other startups instead, and knew, as immigrants on temporary visas, if they failed at this venture, they might even have to leave the country. Despite the many hurdles and objections, Ghaeli and Matus felt mostly at ease about moving ahead. Were they missing something? Or was everyone else?

Experienced executives rely too much on old playbooks PLUS the downside of creative superstars, a better way to manage virtual queues, and more.

Companies that want to increase their innovativeness often copy hip start-ups by adopting agile practices like stand-up meetings. Too bad they don't really work.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. Chapter 1 discusses supply chain frameworks and why they are essential to a company's success. Using these frameworks helps businesses have a real competitive advantage. Two "linked" frameworks are given and explained: a business and supply chain planning framework and a supply chain function planning framework. When addressing supply chain function, strategic planning, tactical planning, and operational planning should all be considered, which can help align decision making. A general framework for supply chain planning and management - taking into account the previous frameworks discussed - is also provided. It shows how the planning activities of a supply chain function can be linked to the business and supply chain strategic planning process. Examples and diagrams are provided. Decision support systems and performance measurement systems are introduced. These are two important tools in planning and control processes. An outline of the rest of the book is also offered.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. This chapter explores the supply chain strategic planning process, which provides direction for the business's supply chain activities for the next few years. A framework using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is explained in detail to support the strategic planning process and can help distribute resources to projects that will support the achievement of its strategy. The AHP facilitates linkages between the supply chain's MOS and the projects necessary to execute the chosen strategies. This requires a planning team to make decisions about various factors that comprise the planning framework. These decisions then affect objectives and strategies of the mission. Proposed projects are assessed by how well they meet criteria linked to specific supply chain strategies. Project scores represent the sum total of the project's benefits in completing the mission successfully. Software packages that can process this planning framework are mentioned.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. This chapter introduces hierarchical planning and provides a rationale for using this type of planning framework. A general framework for a hierarchical supply chain planning (HSCP) system is given, outlining the operational, tactical, and strategic planning levels. A case study is reviewed, showing the benefits of integrated operations planning and scheduling over multiple functions. Individual functions of the supply chain - such as transportation, manufacturing, and distribution - can utilize a hierarchical planning framework. Examples with warehouse operations and inventory management are offered. Feedback loops from lower to higher planning levels are necessary for a successful HSCP system. The chapter concludes by addressing other benefits of the hierarchical framework approach.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. Chapter 4 offers guidance for supply chain professionals implementing appropriate supply chain risk management (SCRM) practices. Techniques to identify, classify, and evaluate risks are given. Common constructs for SCRM are reviewed, and practical frameworks and analyses are provided to facilitate decision making and management. To better address risk management, general categories of risk should be considered before focusing on particular issues, actions, and strategies. This approach requires a broad perspective of a company's SCRM process. Types of risk and three main areas from which sources of risk stem are discussed. Understanding where these risk sources are for a specific company clarifies the level of control a company has over each source. This understanding then shapes the strategies and control measures a company can implement.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. Chapter 5 discusses the importance and value of decision support systems (DSS) in facilitating planning and management actions. DSS is necessary at every level of supply chain planning - the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. The significance and power of DSS is demonstrated through three case study examples. The first examines a DSS developed to support all planning activities from short-run operational to long-run strategic. The second looks at a strategic and tactical manufacturing optimization planning DSS. The last case study explores an operational daily inventory deployment DSS and shows how a supply chain DSS is linked to the enterprise resource planning system. These three cases show how strong DSS contributes to improved customer service levels and cost savings.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. Chapter 6 explores the importance of monitoring supply chain performance. Several frameworks are provided to help companies synchronize their supply chain management plans and decisions with performance measures. One of these frameworks is a hierarchical performance measurement system. This framework houses a company's strategic, tactical, and operational supply chain performance measures, and it aligns with supply chain management activities on these three planning levels. The supply chain operations reference model (SCOR) is then offered, which aids in identifying supply chain metrics and KPIs and is based on five level one supply chain processes. By using both of these frameworks, KPIs can be linked to supply chain strategies. An approach that changes individual KPIs into a supply chain performance index is also given. This then monitors the impact of supply chain management plans and decisions over time.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. This chapter examines outbound logistics of a supply chain and the impact of various outbound logistics strategies on profitability. Outbound logistics deals with moving and storing products from the end of the production line to the end user and is essential to a supplier's customer relationship management process. If a supplier fails to provide reliable service to its retail customers, it can result in financial penalties and potentially the elimination of that supplier's products from the retailer's active product portfolio. Outbound logistics performance plays a major role in a retailer's decision whether or not to stock a supplier's products and represents a determinant of a supplier's successful supply chain and business.

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy, and its impact shows the critical relationship between strong supply chain operations and a business's success. Supply chain planning contributes to a company's financial status, but resources are often directed toward activities and processes with few tangible results and outcomes. Supply chain executives require knowledge to effectively direct their planning activities so that results lead to better business decisions. This book offers proven, practical management frameworks to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. The frameworks give methodologies for organizing and managing essential activities, including supply chain strategic planning and project selection, performance measurement, and customer logistics. Written for supply chain managers, executives, and students, this book provides valuable insights, examples, and methods for managing supply chain functions and organizations. Chapter 8 starts by reviewing the main points of every chapter in the book and then offers ideas on how to implement these frameworks and tools into supply chain planning and management processes. Three questions to direct a business to next steps and to prioritize initiatives are offered for practitioners and executives to ask: where the greatest gaps are, what initiatives will have the greatest immediate impact, and what projects will have the most beneficial long-run multiplier effects. An example of framework and DSS implementation is also given. Supply chain planning frameworks, DSS tools, and performance metric systems are critical to supply chain operations excellence and represent essential management tools for a business to invest in.

Service process design is evolving with opportunities for new design configurations being supported and limitations diminishing. Tasks usually done by the service provider are now sometimes done by customers, resulting in customers having a bigger role in the service process through self-service and offering information to service providers to create a personalized service experience. This book examines how service processes should be designed to use expanding opportunities for customers and service providers to create value together. Frameworks and models are given for designing various kinds of service processes and knowledge-intensive services. The text also takes COVID-19 into account, offering examples of how services adapted during the pandemic. Technology-enabled innovations are also discussed, which provide flexibility in service process design and influence how service providers and customers co-produce services. Readers will learn about the important impacts these service innovations can have on benefit and cost trade-offs and synergies that determine value co-creation. Chapter 1 begins by discussing and giving examples of service processes, which are defined as transformations that convert inputs to outputs. Two familiar service processes are ATMs and self-service checkouts. These two processes are compared and contrasted, looking at benefits and drawbacks for businesses and customers concerning aspects from value to technology. Value is when benefits are seen to be greater than the costs. The chapter ends by offering an outline of the rest of the text.

Service process design is evolving with opportunities for new design configurations being supported and limitations diminishing. Tasks usually done by the service provider are now sometimes done by customers, resulting in customers having a bigger role in the service process through self-service and offering information to service providers to create a personalized service experience. This book examines how service processes should be designed to use expanding opportunities for customers and service providers to create value together. Frameworks and models are given for designing various kinds of service processes and knowledge-intensive services. The text also takes COVID-19 into account, offering examples of how services adapted during the pandemic. Technology-enabled innovations are also discussed, which provide flexibility in service process design and influence how service providers and customers co-produce services. Readers will learn about the important impacts these service innovations can have on benefit and cost trade-offs and synergies that determine value co-creation. Chapter 2 explores three trends that are influential in the service process design landscape: the fast pace of technology-enabled service innovation, the customer's expanded role, and service inventory's increasing use. The impact of these trends are typically linked through supporting technologies. Many examples of these trends and how they intersect are given, such as self-service technologies helping to expand the customer's role. Other examples that are examined include remote monitoring to build a database and mining social media. Service inventory is a newer concept; however, physical versions of it have existed for a while. Pre-producing according to forecasted customer demand can lead to costs of excess inventory.

Service process design is evolving with opportunities for new design configurations being supported and limitations diminishing. Tasks usually done by the service provider are now sometimes done by customers, resulting in customers having a bigger role in the service process through self-service and offering information to service providers to create a personalized service experience. This book examines how service processes should be designed to use expanding opportunities for customers and service providers to create value together. Frameworks and models are given for designing various kinds of service processes and knowledge-intensive services. The text also takes COVID-19 into account, offering examples of how services adapted during the pandemic. Technology-enabled innovations are also discussed, which provide flexibility in service process design and influence how service providers and customers co-produce services. Readers will learn about the important impacts these service innovations can have on benefit and cost trade-offs and synergies that determine value co-creation. This chapter discusses the overall goal of service process design: to offer a mechanism for unlocking value co-creation. Co-creation is when service providers and customers meet through the service process design and co-create value. Ideas on how to do this are provided. In order to unlock value, benefits, costs, and value calculations need to be understood from the side of the customer and the service provider. These two perspectives are discussed in depth with examples. When thinking about the customer's perspective, it is important to keep in mind trade-offs and various factors that influence a customer's assessment of the service experience. With the service provider's perspective, sources of revenues and costs should be considered. These two perspectives are then combined to co-create value.

Service process design is evolving with opportunities for new design configurations being supported and limitations diminishing. Tasks usually done by the service provider are now sometimes done by customers, resulting in customers having a bigger role in the service process through self-service and offering information to service providers to create a personalized service experience. This book examines how service processes should be designed to use expanding opportunities for customers and service providers to create value together. Frameworks and models are given for designing various kinds of service processes and knowledge-intensive services. The text also takes COVID-19 into account, offering examples of how services adapted during the pandemic. Technology-enabled innovations are also discussed, which provide flexibility in service process design and influence how service providers and customers co-produce services. Readers will learn about the important impacts these service innovations can have on benefit and cost trade-offs and synergies that determine value co-creation. Chapter 4 narrows its focus to knowledge-intensive services - services that are centered on information, such as health care, legal services, and technology consulting. Specific challenges that come with knowledge-intensive services are described. Four foundational activities of knowledge-intensive services are identified: service provider information processing, customer information processing, service provider-to-customer information transfer, and customer-to-service provider information transfer. Information processing and information transfer are both essential to creating value. Because of the highly customized aspect of knowledge-intensive services, close collaboration between co-productive efforts of service providers and customers is vital.

Service process design is evolving with opportunities for new design configurations being supported and limitations diminishing. Tasks usually done by the service provider are now sometimes done by customers, resulting in customers having a bigger role in the service process through self-service and offering information to service providers to create a personalized service experience. This book examines how service processes should be designed to use expanding opportunities for customers and service providers to create value together. Frameworks and models are given for designing various kinds of service processes and knowledge-intensive services. The text also takes COVID-19 into account, offering examples of how services adapted during the pandemic. Technology-enabled innovations are also discussed, which provide flexibility in service process design and influence how service providers and customers co-produce services. Readers will learn about the important impacts these service innovations can have on benefit and cost trade-offs and synergies that determine value co-creation. Chapter 5 looks more closely at underlying capabilities that are the source of value co-creation. The service providers and customers both contribute resources to the service process; the resources make up the capabilities in the service process design that drive value. Improving current capabilities and creating new ones means that the value from the service delivery process can rise. How to "unlock" these capabilities is discussed, including how to unlock capabilities in a firm and how service providers can unlock customer capabilities. Customers can also unlock service provider capabilities; service inventory and customer-driven service innovation are explored with this in mind. The power of service providers and customers unlocking each other's capabilities comes from the synergies reached when they work together to improve their joint capabilities.

"We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." Warren Buffet, 1986 Letter to Shareholders. This investment strategy had proven powerful for Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. It had transformed a bad textile company into a diversified investment company, ranked as the 12th largest company in the world in 2019, right behind Apple. It had made Warren Buffet a billionaire and countless of his shareholders millionaires. At the end of 2019, Berkshire's shareholders included Fidelity Investments and the central bank of Norway. The company's stock was considered the number one retirement stock in America. Amid the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, U.S. financial markets crashed at record speed (-35% between February 12 and March 20, 2020), including the biggest single-day drop ever of -12.9% on March 16, 2020, eclipsing the record of October 28, 1929. Expected to be greedy when others are fearful, Buffet was a net seller of stocks and remained on the sideline during that period. His inaction, combined with an unusually cautionary tone at the annual shareholders' meeting, triggered heavy criticisms. Some of his loyalists sold their stocks. As he was approaching his 90th birthday, many started to wonder whether Warren Buffet had changed his time-tested strategy. Was he disconnected from reality? Was he fearful himself?

The grocery industry was going through a major transformation as a consequence of three major trends - the increasing use of ecommerce and online shopping, the intense rivalry from the hard discounters such as Aldi and Lidl who threatened the already modest margins of the national chains such as Safeway, Kroger, and Wal*Mart, and changing customer demands that emphasized convenience, ubiquity, and variety. It was against that backdrop that Rodney McMullen, CEO of Kroger, initiated the Restock Kroger campaign, a strategic initiative that aimed to digitally transform the entire grocery business. Slated to cost $9b, the initiative was launched in 2017 with four fundamental aims - "redefine the grocery customer experience, expand partnerships to create customer value, develop talent and, living our purpose" . The campaign to transform the company was announced just a few months after Amazon had entered the grocery business with its game-changing acquisition of Whole Foods. The case study follows the execution of the Restock Kroger initiative as it unfolded and highlights the crucial decisions that the company made in its digital transformation journey. In doing so, it offers a snapshot of the partnerships that Kroger has built to gain momentum in the digital realm, how it has tried to leverage modern digital technologies (e.g., AI, big data, predictive analytics) to not only improve the efficiency of its store operations but also to provide superior customer service. As the case closes, the company's business was being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the rapid transformation strategies that were deployed by its major rivals such as Walmart and Amazon. Thus, the case offers a good platform to explore the process of digital transformation, aligning the strategy of transformation with the customer journey, and balancing the pressures to maintain some of the elements of the legacy retail model while ushering in radically new solutions online.

When Hurricane Sandy struck the mid-Atlantic coast, in October 2012, thousands of Guardian employees in New York and New Jersey were affected, and company headquarters was flooded by five feet of water. Two days later all the team members had been accounted for; some had been put up in hotel rooms, others had been supplied with generators, and Guardian had created a fund to cover employees' hurricane-related costs.That experience taught Mulligan to think even longer-term than she always had: What were all the things that could go wrong, and how could the company protect itself from them? What could go right if Guardian were poised to seize the opportunities presented? Technology became a top priority: The company migrated many applications to the cloud and modernized employee productivity tools. It built a data analytics operation from the ground up and retrained actuaries to be analysts. Working remotely became common at Guardian. And its leaders anticipated two other important issues for organizations: diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the gig economy.

"Co-opetition"--cooperating with a competitor to achieve a common goal or get ahead--has been gaining traction for three decades. Yet many companies are uncomfortable with the concept and bypass the promising opportunities it presents. In this article two professors who helped introduce the approach offer a framework for deciding whether to team up with a rival, drawing on examples from Apple and Samsung, DHL and UPS, Ford and GM, and Google and Yahoo. Their advice: Start by analyzing what each party will do if it chooses not to cooperate and how that will affect industry dynamics. Sometimes working together is a clear win, but even if it isn't, it may still be better than allowing someone else to take your place in the deal--which could leave you at a disadvantage. Next, it's critical to figure out how to cooperate without giving away your "secret sauce"--your current advantages. Once you've done that, you'll need to craft an agreement that clearly outlines the deal's scope, who is in charge, how the arrangement could be unwound if needed, and how gains will be divided. You'll also have to manage resistance within your own firm and alter internal mindsets. Co-opetition requires mental flexibility, but firms that develop it can gain an important edge.