Organisations face an ever-increasing series of challenges in order to build sustainable and profitable business. These challenges are manifested in various aspects of business operations but especially in planning. As outlined in my previous article ‘Evolving S&OP for the Real World’, the VUCA [1] environment creates a requirement for businesses to plan strategically but also maintain the capability to flex dynamically to manage increasing levels of unpredictability and unc

Many major organisations still have at their core a functional organisation design which has its origins in the ‘scientific management’ principles developed by FW Taylor in the early 20th century. Whilst businesses have evolved various approaches to improve cross-functional or ‘end-to-end’ capability (such as matrix management) the underlying framework for most organisations remains functionally-based. This approach has undoubtedly been successful, with a predominantly funct

In my previous posts, I have discussed the challenges in deploying an effective S&OP/IBP process which are experienced by organisations across all sectors. These challenges mean that S&OP/IBP rarely delivers the enterprise benefits that were envisioned for the process when it was first conceived and codified by Dick Ling in the 1980s. Perhaps the most common, and significant, challenge to the execution of an impactful enterprise S&OP/IBP process is the lack of cross-function

Supply chain blogs and articles have become increasingly dominated with debate on how to best manage the risks and opportunities of an operating environment becoming more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (the so called VUCA challenges). This often leads to discussion on the tools, technologies and processes which can help businesses adapt and succeed. There are undoubtedly many approaches on offer (for example the array of emerging technologies described collective

Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) and Integrated Business Planning (IBP) are often seen as fundamentally supply-chain centred processes which offer somewhat limited direct benefit to other functions, especially Commercial and Finance. The criticality of cross-functional collaboration in S&OP/IBP is also often overlooked. However, a good S&OP/IBP process offers major benefits outside the supply chain function. My previous post highlighted the key outcomes for Commercial lea

It is now widely recognised that S&OP (or its successor IBP) is much more than a specialist supply chain process and requires a high degree of cross-functional partnership and collaboration across the organisation to deliver lasting results. This aspect of S&OP is also recognised as being the most challenging to deliver and sustain. Whilst there is plenty of practical advice and guidance on some of the more mechanical aspects of the S&OP process (such as process design or ar

In my previous articles in this series, I have outlined some of the challenges and approaches to creating a strong cross-functional S&OP process based on my experiences of leading this change in a global pharmaceutical company. However, as any S&OP practitioner will tell you, the initial deployment is really only getting the organisation to the start line – the real value to the business comes from achieving a sustained and improving process. Researchers in this field typic

Over the last 25 years I have led business teams in a diverse range of contexts. In that time, the emergence of cross-functional collaboration and partnership as a critical success factor has become increasingly clear to me. This has been especially true in my experience of the last 3 years in deploying a global Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process in a major pharmaceuticals business. My previous articles in this series have provided some further background on the drive

The Commercial/Supply Chain Partnership in Pharmaceuticals In my previous post Arm-in-Arm or Arm's Length?, I outlined the emerging need for cross-functional working in the pharmaceuticals sector based on sector-wide pressures on innovation, growth, margins and working capital. In particular, I proposed that a key success factor for the industry is enhanced partnership and integration between the Supply Chain and Commercial functions using the vehicle of Sales & Operations Pl

The evolving challenge of cross-functional working in pharmaceuticals The pharma industry has long understood the need for close collaboration between key functions to drive business success – with profitable innovation demanding close partnership between R&D and Commercial functions, and effective campaign execution drawing on an effective Marketing and Sales collaboration. However, the winning formula in the pharma sector has developed over the last five years and this has