Too often you will see high-level strategies being developed with a rather limited focus on implementation
. Supply Chain solutions can only be successful when they support the process going from A to B.
Other then just looking at the specifics of each products and/or service, it is of crucial importance to understand the business context including the impact on the organization.
Pro-actively you also would need to be aware of the internal and external expected reactions as a result of a change-management process you might be driving.
Hereby some best practices for securing positive Supply Chain solutions:
First discuss with top-management on expectations and priorities
Take your time to absorb the culture
Make sure that the CEO/CFO communicates and emphasizes your presence and importance throughout the company
Have internal meetings with all key decision makers involved with the scope you will be working on
Organize high-level meetings with key suppliers in order to feel the temperature from both ends
Project all your actions on a timeline with strong focus on innovations (past/now/future)
Integrate the implementation roadmap into your strategy
Avoid making too big promises but act behind the scene in phase one
Take care with too easy extrapolations as local culture (industry and country style) could be completely different
Challenge and review your strategy in case of too big mountains to climb
Move (gradually) towards the implementation path
Use specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the changes (ex. % of contract compliance, Completion time, Projected Savings, etc.)
Only demonstrating your specific knowledge on a given product and/or service is just not good enough! You would need to be an all-round business person with excellent communication skills and a strong sense of perseverance to succeed in implementing supply chain solutions.