SC-Exec Newsletter – May 10

Summary

The US is starting to reopen from the pandemic while facing political, social, and employee safety factors. Supply chain challenges and potential actions are becoming clearer. We are in the midst of massive, multi-industry, demand/supply bullwhip environment. Supply chain leaders are driving unprecedented levels of transparency, cooperation, and agility across their spheres of influence. Companies continue to pivot their strategies and their business models in an effort to adjust to the disruptions and to recover.

In an effort to better support you, I will be including a focus on expense control strategies in order to address challenges that you may be facing now and in the coming months. You can really help steer my efforts by providing input to “What is the most significant expense control challenge or issue that your team is urgently needing help on?”

Submit your comments and you will receive an excellent “Expense Management / Cheat Sheet” (courtesey of Art of Procurement) which includes 24 expense control tactics. Use it to spot check your expense control action plans. Thanks in advance for taking the time to submit your comments.

Top Links

An interview w/ BJ Bain, CEO PrimeRevenue by SCB’s, Bob Bowman. (10 min video).
  1. China’s production was up 28%, yoy in Jan 2020. It then dropped dramatically during and after the lunar New Year. But has ramped back up to 2019 levels.
  2. Inventory is building as demand (orders) fell 30 to 40%. Some orders are completely off; e.g. due to automotive factory closings of 2 to 6 weeks. At the same time, the pandemic has created shortages in industries such as medical and food.
  3. “This past week has seen dramatic increase in supplier’s need for early payments or selling their invoices”
  4. “We are seeing unprecedented levels of cooperation and transparency. It will take the strong to help the less strong”
AmCham China flash report summary, May 8, Patrick Burson, SC/247 ( 2 min read)
  1. 150 US firms were surveyed. U.S. firms doing business in China say business is gradually returning to normal, but lower revenues and delayed payments are leading to changes in their short-term and long-term strategies.
  2. 42% of respondents say they have resumed normal operations. However, the longer-term outlook for others remains gloomy.
    1. 76% of respondents predict revenue declines if business cannot return to normal before the end of August.
    2. The share of those reporting a daily loss of between half and one million RMB has nearly doubled in a month.
  3. Many members are increasing investments in IT, with a focus on improving workforce productivity and their relationship with customers.
(Part 1) Philip Ideson, AoP Podcast (25 minutes) Great, high-level overview
  1. Data Collection & Analysis – a) start with data, where is it located, categorize and cleanse it. b) approach should be flexible, depending on your situation, i.e. simple to complex.
  2. Needs Assessment – align with company goals and individual stakeholder needs.
  3. Build a Structure – a) program management & team b) establish project intake / project desk c) set-up a stage-gate process as a key driver. Can be as simple as two gates. d) establish saving KPIs and separate out cost avoidance from cost savings reporting.
  4. Build a wave plan – Phases are based on needs, urgency, complexity, time-to-value, strategic importance, contract expirations, bandwidth of resources, and executive support for each area. Plans are owned functionally and aligned with C-Suite.
  5. Deliver – more on this later.

Final note: I’ve upgraded to a mail app, which has more functionality to enable capturing reader advice and suggestions. I am posting my past letters at and have added the ability for people to subscribe. Please feel free to forward the newsletters to your colleagues.

Best regards,

Don

Don K Brown

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