Check Your Mindset at the Border
In this article, the authors discuss why the West still doesn’t “get” China. They begin by discussing how multinational companies tend to manage China from the outside (Hong Kong and Singapore are close but not close enough). They also point out that the Chinese locals are becoming increasingly capable players and, therefore, more competitive.
Less visible reasons why companies languish in China are equally important. Most … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: F. Nikolaus Soellner, Guy Bouchet, Lian Hoon Lim | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: International – China
Mobinet 2005: Raising the Stakes
Shifting Your Supply Chain into Reverse
“Satisfaction guaranteed” is still promised by many retailers today. But what happens to those returned products? How do the retailer and the manufacturer handle them? Both have traditionally focused on delivering goods to customers, not on managing their return in an efficient manner. The handling of returned products, often called reverse logistics, is an often-neglected part of an otherwise efficient supply chain.
Pressures to improve customer … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Charles Harthan, Patrick Van den Bossche, Sean Monahan | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Operations
When Your Suppliers Talk… Listen
This article discusses why listening matters- particularly as it relates to suppliers. Your suppliers have taken up residency in some of the best run companies in the world, which makes them wellsprings of information. In many cases, this means they have already dealt with and overcome some of the same challenges that you face. Spend time with your suppliers and you may hear an informed … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Authors: Richard Sheinfeld, Robert M. Tevelson | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Operations
Forward and Reverse Logistics Characteristics
Value-Building Growth
Today, companies must strike a proper balance between the top and the bottom lines, while keeping in mind that neither growth for growth’s sake nor a pure profit focus offers the optimal path to superior shareholder value. CEOs who consistently achieve value-building growth do so by adhering to a strong strategy and promoting innovation, geographic expansion and risk taking.
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subjects: Best Practices, Management
Reverse Logistics Costs
Rising to the Growth Challenge: A.T. Kearney’s Financial Institutions Organic Growth Index, 2005
Crunch Time: The Competitiveness Audit
China Versus the United States: Who has the most to gain (or lose) in apparel?
Creating Value through Strategic Supply Management: The 2004 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement
A.T. Kearney’s 2004 Assessment of Excellence in Procurement global research study of more than 300 companies confirms that senior executives expect procurement to go well beyond its traditional role. Rather than focusing solely on cost reduction, today’s business leaders see procurement’s greatest challenge as capturing value beyond cost from the supply market.
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subjects: Best Practices, Operations
Why Today’s IT Organization Won’t Work Tomorrow: Future-proofing information technology
Information technology (IT) can change the way businesses work in unexpected new ways–but today, such breakthroughs are rare. Most IT departments can’t effectively explore innovative uses of technology because they are stuck in a daily operational grind. Today’s IT organizations will not meet tomorrow’s needs unless they move beyond fixing the past and participate more actively in planning for the future by focusing on the … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: IT / Technology / E-Business
“No Insult” Pricing and Promotions: A smarter approach to winning back value-conscious retail customers
Traditional pricing and promotion strategies are coming up short against the growing pressures from value retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco. How can retailers improve their tarnished price image and offer customers the deals they want without giving away the store?
This paper discusses A.T. Kearney’s approach to pricing and promotion. We offer a customer-focused strategy in which retailers identify and exploit the items most … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing
The Changing Face of China: China as an Offshore Destination For IT and Business Process Outsourcing
Long the world’s factory, China is now becoming an attractive offshore location for IT offshoring (ITO) and business process offshoring (BPO). These markets are expected to grow as the Chinese government continues to entice foreign multinationals. Similarly, Chinese-based ITO and BPO providers are working to improve their capabilities to capture business from multinationals in the United States and Europe.
This paper highlights findings in
A.T. Kearney’s … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subjects: International – China, Outsourcing / BPO
A Decision Tree for Determining Operating Models
How Corporate Boards (Should) Work: Perspectives on the 2004 Corporate Governance Effectiveness Survey
The bottom-line objectives for good governance are simple. The role of the board is to protect and grow shareholder wealth and ensure ethical and equitable corporate behavior for all stakeholders. The board must trust, but verify, the management team’s stewardship. Boards should reinvent their roles and the protocols under which they operate to be effective in recognizing and acting when necessary. How Corporate Boards (Should) … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Corporate Governance
Filling the CEO’s Chair: Creating and Implementing CEO Succession Strategies
Expectations placed on directors have moved beyond selecting the CEO; they must now wrestle with the larger issues of redefining the board’s role, culture and operations-of preserving and increasing value on behalf of the company’s stakeholders.
Filling the CEO’s Chair offers a summary and analysis of the major findings of A.T. Kearney’s 2004 Corporate Governance Effectiveness survey of S&P 500 independent directors. It also examines changes … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Corporate Governance
The Complexity Challenge: A Survey on Complexity Management Across the Supply Chain
Anyone who has visited a supermarket or mass merchandiser recently has an appreciation for the explosion in the variety of products being offered for sale. Consumer product manufacturers have added brands, extended lines and altered pack sizes, shapes and colors to lure consumer dollars. In introducing these new products and variants, companies have made their businesses more complex.
Designing, marketing, forecasting, pricing, producing and distributing … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Operations
Banks Shift Gears in Drive for Top-Line Growth: Focus Turns to Customers in the Financial Services Industry
The battle of the banks is taking on new urgency. After spending the past few years fiddling with their cost structures, leading banking organizations around the world are shifting their efforts toward growth-with an eye toward creating value.
Yet while their growth expectations are high, the markets are not cooperating. Low GDP (gross domestic product) and inflation rates in almost every market mean tepid-to-moderate growth … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subject: Industry Specific | Industry: Finance / Banking
Transforming Field-Service Operations: Running Faster, Longer, Smarter In Customer-Delivery Services
Business boundaries continue to be tested and surpassed; what was once good enough to win the gold medal won’t even qualify you to take part in today’s race. This is principally the case for field-service retailers and other companies that deliver products or services that people use every day: packages, consumer goods, groceries, maintenance and repairs. Being able to simply cover the distance will never … [ Read more ]
Content: Article | Source: “Kearney” | Subjects: Customer Related, Operations