Taking Stock

Prioritizing organizational change management (OCM) and involving your people in the process is table stakes. For any successful implementation, there’s a significant reliance on end-user adoption, as they’re the ones who will be directly impacted by the change at the end of the day. How do you get individuals aligned and on board? How are you communicating with them? Are people willing to adapt? If not, why? What are their concerns? Are you listening to them? 

In this episode of Taking Stock, I’m joined by Eileen George, a principal consultant with Clarkston and a leader in organizational change management, as we discuss driving transformation through OCM.

It’s nearly impossible to scan a news site or paper and not see a story focusing on some aspect of the global supply chain crisis. From ships stuck in ports to understaffed warehouses and empty grocery store shelves, the disruptions to our supply chains as a result of the COVID pandemic are hard to miss. Consumers have certainly been feeling the effects of widespread disruption and business leaders themselves are no different – a statistic from Bank of America counted a 412% increase in mentions of supply chain issues by chief executives over the previous year. Supply chain disruption has seemingly become such a constant that The Federal Reserve Bank of New York introduced a new measure for global supply chain disruptions in January 2022 – the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index. In this episode of Taking Stock, I’m thrilled to be joined by three Clarkston consultants – Aley Saleh, Scott Shaw, and Evan Shirley. They each bring a unique perspective on the situation having assisted clients with some of these very challenges over the past two years.

Macro trends in consumer goods have wildly accelerated and evolved over the last two years in the face of the ongoing COVID pandemic. From behavioral changes in consumers to unprecedented supply chain disruptions, a near-overwhelming number of factors has driven meaningful shifts in how consumer products organizations conduct their business.

In today’s episode of Taking Stock, I’m joined by Global Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for Consumer Industries at SAP, Mark Osborn. Mark shares his insights on how the industry has evolved in recent years and the impact of COVID on macro trends in consumer goods. 

Mark’s insights bring to light the context of the industry, how it’s evolved, and how brands can evolve to meet rapidly changing consumer expectations and market dynamics. Click below to listen to the full discussion with Mark and subscribe to our insights to receive more information like this each week.

On September 15th, Tom Finegan, Clarkston CEO and co-founder, published his first book Amplifiers: How Great Leaders Magnify the Power of Teams, Increase the Impact of Organizations, and Turn Up the Volume on Positive Change. His book quickly moved up the bestseller charts and I was excited to connect with Tom on Taking Stock to ask him some questions that were on my mind about the book and his writing process. I wanted to know why he was driven to write Amplifiers and why he felt this was an important message for us right now. I was also interested in Tom’s perspective on how to apply the learnings from Amplifiers outside of the organization – in driving societal change and in life. 

Contact [email protected] if you are interested in connecting with Tom Finegan for a talk or workshop activity on leadership and followership styles, traits, or motives. For additional information about Amplifiers, visit info.clarkstonconsulting.com/amplifiers.

In January 2020, the World Economic Forum released statements calling for a “global reskilling revolution”, estimating that 42% of core skills required to perform existing jobs are expected to change by 2022. Since then, the COVID pandemic has rapidly accelerated digitalization across nearly every industry and only placed an even stronger focus on the need for new skills and capabilities in our modern workforce, making learning, training, and development all the more critical for any business. Jessica Mitsch is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Momentum. Jessica and I walk through her background, Momentum’s founding, changes in the workforce, and the impact of COVID on diversity, equity, and inclusion, career development, workforce planning, training, and more.

Application Managed Services (AMS) is an evolving practice. Typically known to be commoditized and reactive, the next generation managed services model is moving to a more proactive approach that includes identifying issues and gaps before they even arise. The next generation managed services approach includes expanding services beyond maintenance and operations spanning to development management, information technology (IT) improvements, and broader lifecycle activities. This shifted focus to value and emphasis on the broader business outcome has left companies and AMS providers seeking more of a partnership rather than a transactional relationship.

Supply chain executives have been under pressure this year. Meeting the rising demands of their customers, increasing speed to market, expanding eCommerce fulfillment abilities, and reducing overall risk are some of the key initiatives they’ve had to focus on across industries. In addition to the rising demand from consumers, warehouse management talent is growing increasingly more difficult to find and maintain this growing demand. Because of this recent accelerated drive for advancement, omnichannel is changing the overall natural of warehouse operations and strategy.

Implementation project methodologies are often split into two groups, Waterfall vs Agile. Agile is known to adapt well to changing environments, and work best with individuals who exhibit a strong sense of teamwork and flexibility. Whereas, Waterall is a traditional workflow with a more structured environment where processes and procedures are well-entrenched. With companies still working in a primarily virtual capacity, the influence of working with one approach over the other has certainly shifted. But, what does a hybrid approach look like and what are the benefits? A blended approach to implementations is oftentimes a stronger approach than pure Agile on its own.

Managing a diverse workforce is top of mind for many organizations right now. Today’s workplace has become increasingly diverse, with different ages, races, backgrounds and skill-sets working side-by-side.  Further, Covid-19 has accelerated the trend of remote work and organizations are currently contemplating what is the right mix of remote vs. onsite mix going forward.  While this mix of employees provides unique opportunities for organizations to bring different perspectives to bear, it also brings about unique challenges that leaders need to consider.

What does Quality in Consumer Products mean? Today, we’ll be talking through quality assurance on the podcast. For CP companies, determining the right level of regulatory compliance forces tough decisions in balancing the tightrope of efficiency vs. efficacy. While there is no singular answer for companies, a diverse strategy that accounts for different products, and varying requirements across those products, is critical to success.