CAPTURE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH RESPONSE MANAGEMENT

Many organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to position themselves for market success because market situations are changing faster than strategies can be developed. New competitors appear with unique approaches, product life cycles continue to get shorter, and customers demand immediate response.

Randy Littleson serves as vice president at Kinaxis and has more than 17 years of management experience, having held executive-level positions at Interface Software, Spyglass, and Palindrome Corporation (a Seagate company). To discuss this topic further, join him online at blog.kinaxis.com.

In a highly outsourced manufacturing environment, the ripple effect of unexpected changes is even more pronounced. And the impact of change can be felt across all business processes, from sales and operations planning to new product introductions to procurement—intensifying the effect of any response, whether negative or positive.

Historically, companies have made strategic investments in solutions designed to run the business like clockwork. But as the pace of change continues to accelerate—and as the nature of change becomes less incremental and more discontinuous—this goal is rapidly yielding to the need to manage the business when it doesn't run like clockwork. Traditional topdown planning approaches are no longer sufficient. They have been superseded by the need to develop a core competency in responding to constant changes in supply, demand, capacity, and product.

To effectively manage change, it makes sense to specify the outcomes required and empower people to figure out how best to produce them. Achieving this requires organizational leadership along with Response Management technologies that break down individual business silos and give everyone—from management to the front lines—the information and decisionmaking capabilities to intelligently handle change. Response Management solutions give companies visibility across the extended supply chain and enable them to anticipate potential problems, model and collaborate on multiple action alternatives in real time, and quickly choose the best response.

As volatility increases and business continues to speed up, the demands facing companies will only increase. Organizations that leverage Response Management to gain core competency in identifying and responding to change will win the race for competitive advantage in today's global markets.