Response management: Strategic and operational considerations

Abstract

The 21st century is well underway and already the future is becoming clear. The opportunities confronting business organisations include; new high added-value product-services, new business models, new approaches to manufacturing and operations, and emerging technologies and applications. The threats are quite clear: increasing competition from emerging economies, shortening product life cycles and therefore life spans for innovation, complex environmental and sustainability issues, a changing international socio-economic environment, an increasing regulatory climate and, changing business and values. For many organisations the issues are clear and understood and steps are being undertaken to minimise the threats and to maximise the opportunities; these are relatively straight forward for companies in the fmcg industries where they are close to the final consumer. However many do not have that “luxury” and need to think through how the dynamics of the demand chain can be captured and understood and, further, whether the supply chain that has served many over recent years needs to be re-examined. This paper addresses these issues. It describes the relationships between the demand chain, the supply chain, and the value chain and Identifies companies that have been successful by embracing the notion that there is a need to be customer-centric – wherever you may be in the value chain.