In January 2014 it was 5 years ago that I arrived in Australia from the Netherlands. As I did several times before, I quit my job, moved country and started a new job. An approach that is not always helpful if you want to climb the corporate ladder, but it is great for getting new ideas and new life experiences that feeds curiosity and the soul.
In Australia I picked up writing or blogging with a focus on supply chain management and planning. I also did some research through a questionnair called ‘The S&OP pulse check’. The document attached looks back at 4 years of writing, with 30 blogs on Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) or Integrated Business Planning (IBP). You’ll find that I use both terminologies randomly.
My first blog ever ‘The behavioural supply chain’, was triggered after my aha moment that country cultures can’t be changed, but company cultures can be changed. Before that I focussed on how cultural differences between countries and geographies can be a barrier to implement great S&OP. This interest was fuelled because I worked across many countries.
It was after the merger speech from a CEO, when I realized that great leadership can change a company culture and make it more suitable to implement and sustain a complex business process like S&OP. You’ll find blogs grouped accordingly under leadership and company culture.
Although leaders have the biggest change impact, S&OP practitioners can’t walk away from their responsibility to facilite and sustain S&OP change in process and behaviours. They have to be aware of their soft skills maturity and work hard and show resilience to cross the functional silo’s and drive collaboration. You’ll find these blogs grouped under S&OP and the right brain as well as under my other S&OP muses.
Several blogs have been edited and published in well known magazines like the Journal of Business Forecasting, the AFP Exchange and the quarterly Supply Chain Movement. In this document, the blogs are copied and pasted raw from my website, with a minor amount of editing. There might be some overlap, the timeorder might have changed too, so that’s what you can expect!
Here it is: A S&OP journey by blog
I hope you enjoy it and get something out of it. Let me know if you do.
Cheers,
Niels
Supply Chain Trend 
Hi Niels, that’s certainly a log of blogging. I have always found your blogs to be thought provoking and I think you are about the only blogger who dares to attempt to define IBP, which is certainly no easy feat. One thought on changing cultures of companies versus countries via strong leaders. In my view, the difference is one of frequency, not type. Just as every company culture can get influenced by a strong leader, so does every country… just far less frequency.
For example Jefferson’s spirit and thinking is tangible in the USA today, Confucius’ influence remains everywhere in China, Locke in England, Voltaire in France, Aquinas in Italy, Calvin in The Netherlands and Switzerland, Mohammed in Arabia and I think Australia bears the imprint of an Irish immigrant named Peter Lalor… Almost certainly the greatest leader in human history was a humble philosopher: Aristotle, the key mental influence on both the Roman Empire and later on the Enlightenment (and through it most of the names in the above list) a period separated by around 2,000 years.
Thanks for your very kind comment, I really appreciate it.
I really like your comment on the difference in frequency of changing cultures in countries or companies. Very true indeed. Another difference I believe is that for a country it is more an amalgamation of circumstances (war, disasters, macro economics etc etc), but for a company it can be more of a choice.
Before IBP, my journey of curiosity led me across religion, philosophy and country cultures.
My style is indeed thought provoking and questioning, towards myself and others. A style that comes from Socrates, a key influence to Aristotle am I right?
My goal has always been to understand the world around me better, or at least form an opinion about it. My underlying question was mostly; why is it often so hard for people to understand each other and work together to make things better?
I found some answers in religion and philosophy and I found some answers through my writing.
That’s why I created the blog log. It is most likely I will start a new phase of discovery, The blog log is closing of an old phase.
cheers,
Niels