Living Supply Chains: How to Mobilize the Enterprise Around Delivering What Your Customers Want

Chapter 2. Customer conversations: All pathways lead to customers

We have all been seeking the Holy Grail of improved operational and financial performance. The problem is we have been looking in the wrong places. The secret of designing a superior supply chain is to start by re-segmenting customers along buying behaviour lines and then reverse engineering from there. We need to shape specific value propositions and underpin these with appropriate organization structures, processes, technology and other building blocks.^[1] Indeed, something that we have known for some time – but have been denying – is that customers are the ultimate frame of reference. Mattias Holweg and Fritz Pil were adamant about this when they promoted the use of Built-to-Order ...