Poor Retailer
Scorecards
Charge
Backs
Seasonal
Spikes
Distribution
Support for
Promotions
Direct-to-
Store
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for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Nationwide, our
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basictraining
The third can deliver sustainable, tangible benefits that get better year after year as
proficiency grows and a continuous
improvement mentality gets institutionalized. It marries the value of efficient and
integrated processes with the promise of
technology enhancement and the power of
elevated people capacity and capability.
We should mention one other alternative
for those seeking consulting help, and that
is the use of students, under the direction
of qualified and experienced university
professors, to analyze specific problems and
opportunities. These present a low-cost
alternative to professional consultants and
provide talented young people with realistic developmental opportunities. (Do
remember, though, that they are students
who are still learning.)
BUT WILL IT DELIVER?
A challenge for the prospective client is to
determine which consultant saying all the
right things about people, process, and
technology—and about doing it with
you—really means it. Which consultant
delivers a truly different day-to-day working experience, along with a transformed
organization and clear business results?
You can get some sense of genuineness
and authenticity in face-to-face meetings—
not selling sessions and presentations, but
exploratory conversations. And you can ask
references point-blank about what’s different: about techniques, about walking the
walk versus talking the talk, about depth
beyond the surface impressions, about trust
levels, and about the personalities behind
the skill sets.
Those are worth exploring and are far
more revealing and valuable than
PowerPoint decks, a cheerful smile, and a
firm handshake.
And in our world of supply chain management, there’s too much at stake—for us,
for our customers, and for our suppliers—to
not get the consulting relationship right.
Art van Bodegraven, practice leader at S4 Consulting, may
be reached at (614) 336-0346 or avan@columbus.rr.com.
You can read his blog at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/
the_art_of_art/. Kenneth B. Ackerman, president of The
Ackerman Company, can be reached at (614) 488-3165 or
ken@warehousing-forum.com.
