Once I conducted an S&OP audit at a country organisation that was ๐๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐. I was wondering what it was that they were doing differently than the other S&OP teams.
At the Executive S&OP board meeting, there was a highly engaged discussion about how to best tackle a big business opportunity. Each function lead was openly sharing the own ๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐จ๐ง, and several conflicting strategies were proposed. Finally, the Managing Director looked at the S&OP lead, who had not said a word yet, and she asked him: โWhat do the ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ tell us? Could you provide us an overview?โ The S&OP lead was explaining the situation based on historical data and different scenarios. He also ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ of the department leads. Quickly the team came up with a plan that was well understood and supported by everybody.
A ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ and ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ are the secret of success!