Transformation Leadership Skill 3 - Integrate Best Practices

An important responsibility of the Supply Chain Transformation Leader is to provide the organization with an approach to transformation. Ideally, this approach will include industry best practices which can be integrated into a step-by-step playbook quickly understood and utilized by the organization. These best practices are typically selected from three categories:

· Leverage Major Investments

· Utilize Leading Concepts

· Apply Proven Practices Already Existing in the Organization

Leverage Major Investments

Most organizations have made substantial investment in project portfolios, skills training, and technology that can be quickly leveraged by the transformation leader to support performance improvement efforts. These best practices are mature and well defined by industry standards, typically have initiatives formed around them. Best practices such as SCOR, Lean Six Sigma/OpEx, ERP, and Strategic Quality/TQM have been around a while and most organizations have some level of experience with them.  The transformation leader can leverage the existing resources, methods, skills, and technology of these initiatives to support accelerated performance improvement. 

Utilize Leading Concepts 

There are a number of leading concepts that today’s transformation leader will want to include in their approach to transformation. These Emerging Practices have just begun to be more generally accepted and represent an opportunity for the organization to take an industry leading position in vision and performance. Concepts like Flexible Methods to Fit Business Needs, Enterprise Intelligence/AI, Tailored Supply Chains, Demand Driven Enterprise, and Governance of End-to-End Performance are all gaining more acceptance and utilization.

Apply Proven Practices

Proven practices are typically well known in the organization and are frequently utilized. Practices such as Project Management, Change Management, Consulting Methods, and Action Planning have practitioners and tools commonly utilized across the organization. The transformation leader can trust these practices to be readily available and effectively used in performance improvement efforts.

The successful Supply Chain Transformation Leader will invest sufficient time and thought in carefully selecting the best practices that fit the business needs, and integrate them into a step-by-step approach that will be aggressively adopted by the organization.

To learn more about this and other Transformation Leadership Skills go to: CSCTA.net