Bricks Matter: The Role of Supply Chains in Building Market-Driven Differentiation

Supply chain management processes have gradually shifted from a supply-driven focus to a demand-driven one in order to better synchronize demand and supply signals. Bricks Matter shows you how you can identify market risks and opportunities and translate these into winning tactics. Business cases highlight how business leaders are winning through market-driven approaches.

• Helps you understand how to apply the emerging world of predictive analytics for the better management of value networks
• Includes business cases illustrating the market-driven approach
• Reveals how businesses can identify market risks and translate these into supply-side tactics

As companies transition from demand-driven to market-driven approach, the focus in organizations shifts from one of vertical excellence to building strong market-to-market horizontal processes. Improve revenue by increasing market share, improve profit margins, and maintain high levels of customer service with the indispensable guidance found in Bricks Matter.

About the Authors

Lora Cecere is the founder of the research firm Supply Chain Insights, which is paving new directions in building thought-leading supply chain research. She is also the author of the enterprise software blog Supply Chain Shaman. The blog focuses on the use of enterprise applications to drive supply chain excellence. As an enterprise strategist, Lora focuses on the changing face of enterprise technologies. Her research is designed for the early adopter seeking first mover advantage. Current research topics include the digital consumer, supply chain sensing, demand shaping and revenue management, market-driven value networks, accelerating innovation through open design networks, the evolution of predictive analytics, emerging business intelligence solutions, and technologies to improve safe and secure product delivery. With more than 30 years of diverse supply chain experience, Lora spent 9 years as an industry analyst with Gartner Group, AMR Research, and Altimeter Group. Prior to becoming a supply chain analyst she spent 15 years as a leader in the building of supply chain software at Manugistics and Descartes Systems Group, and several years as a supply chain practitioner at Procter & Gamble, Kraft/General Foods, Clorox, and Dreyers Grand Ice Cream (now a division of Nestlé).

Charles Chase is the principal industry consultant of the manufacturing and supply chain global practice at SAS. He is the primary architect and strategist for delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve supply chain efficiencies for SAS customers. He has more than 26 years of experience in the consumer pack-aged goods industry and is an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics, and supply chain management. Prior to working as the principal industry consultant at SAS, Chase led the strategic marketing activities in support of the launch of SAS Forecast Server, which won the Trend-Setting Product of the Year award for 2005 by KM World magazine, and SAS Demand-Driven Forecasting. He has also been involved in the reengineering, design, and implementation of three forecasting and marketing intelligence processes/systems. Chase has also worked at the Mennen Company, Johnson & Johnson, Consumer Products Inc., Reckitt & Benckiser, the Polaroid Corporation, Coca-Cola, Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, and Heineken USA.

Chase is a former associate editor of the Journal of Business Forecasting and is currently an active member of the practitioner advisory board for Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting. He has authored several articles on sales forecasting and market response modeling. He was named a 2004 Pro to Know in the February/March 2004 issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive magazine. He is also the author of Demand-Driven Forecasting: A Structured Approach to Forecasting (Wiley, 2009).