Supply Chain Metrics that Matter

Chapter 3Using Value Network Strategies to Move to the Next Level on the Frontier

It was autumn. Scarlet leaves swirled in the air as I walked to dinner. It was time for Joe to develop his strategy for the New Year, and he invited me to help.

As we sat down, we laughed about his BHAG session the prior January. We celebrated how far he'd come on his journey. The mood was exuberant as he celebrated his team's recent award for driving significant improvements in operating margin and reducing inventory levels. When I congratulated him, Joe laughed and said, “I am slowly conquering the Effective Frontier, but I have a lot more work to do.”

Joe now wanted to push performance to a new level. For him, it was all about growth and building a guiding coalition to drive change. He was excited about defining the new frontier with his new project. Based on the success with his team, he was starting to gain momentum with his peers. Humbly, Joe would always say that they were at the beginning of their journey. He continued to be worried about the gap between his company's performance and their peer group. Even though he was driving improvements, he felt that there was still a lot to do to solve nagging customer service problems. His team didn't feel that they could bridge the difference in performance without a redesign of the business network and redefining how the company did business.

The evening's discussion was on how to change the mental model within the company. Joe wanted to make a ...