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Business Strategy Alignment: Page 521

If It Were a Country, the Internet Economy Would Rank in the Top Five Richest Nations

By 2016, there will be 3 billion internet users globally -almost half the world's population. The internet economy will reach $4.2tr in the G-20 economies. If it were a national economy, the internet economy would rank in the world's top five, behind only the U.S., China, Japan and India, and ahead of Germany.

Fulfilling the Promise of India's Manufacturing Sector

India's manufacturers have a golden chance to emerge from the shadow of the country's services sector and seize more of the global market.

Keeping Tabs on Global Sourcing Is Full-Time Effort

Analyst Insight: The decision to initiate or continue global sourcing is not a simple one to make. Organizations have many factors to consider, both external and internal, and those factors can change. Organizations must revisit their sourcing strategy often to ensure that they are maintaining the best value. - Becky Partida, knowledge specialist, APQC

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The Cloud and the Supply Chain

The "cloud" can be a difficult concept to grasp, given the various definitions it has been assigned by software vendors and users. Greg Johnsen, executive vice president of marketing and sales with GT Nexus, calls it "an information replica of the physical supply chain." Cloud-based technology provides one place where managers can go to monitor critical supply-chain events. When an element is updated, "everybody gets the information."

Green Supply Chains More a Goal Than a Reality at This Point

Although manufacturers have stepped up their efforts aimed at reducing their own carbon footprints, they have yet to significantly widen those efforts throughout their supply chains. According to a recent study conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Accenture, while 43 percent of the respondents say they have achieved year-on-year emissions reductions, only 28 percent of their suppliers can say the same.

Four Points to Consider When Developing An Omni-Channel Strategy

Omni-channel commerce has put the consumer in the driver's seat, with the ability to shop anywhere, buy anywhere and receive products in the manner and time of their choosing. While this revolution has been a great convenience to consumers, it has left many retailers scrambling to develop a seamless operation that not only delivers the consumer's expectations regardless of channel but does so profitably. Therein lies the rub.

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Supply Chain Finance for Emerging Markets

Analyst Insight: The awareness of supply chain finance (SCF) in emerging markets is growing. Most recently, foreign importers of goods manufactured in emerging markets, procure-to-pay software providers and financial institutions have been driving increased activity globally. Companies in emerging markets, especially in the small and medium-sized segment, stand to achieve business gains with better understanding of their end-to-end financial supply chains and proper application of available SCF strategies and solutions. - Viktoria Sadlovska, managing director and CRO, Prameya Research

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Big Data Supply Chains: Sense, Plan, Learn - and then Act

Analyst Insight: Today's supply chains are efficient, and inflexible. Market conditions change, but planning continues based on historical information. Global supply chains need better planning, but traditional technologies are not up to the task. New technologies are emerging to help to fill the gap. We are entering the era of Big Data Supply Chains that will sense before responding and learn before acting. - Lora Cecere, partner, Altimeter Group

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50 Fast-Growing, Globalizing Companies Highlight Southeast Asia's Economic Resurgence

Fifty companies, the Southeast Asia challengers, have been rapidly expanding, competing in the Asian and global economy, and throwing a spotlight on a region that has experienced an economic renaissance that has largely escaped attention, according to a report published by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Execs Still Want to Cut Costs, But Most No Longer Considering Layoffs

More than half of Fortune 1000 executives are focused on cost reduction strategies for delivering earnings and funding growth in 2012, according to a recent survey commissioned by Procurian, formerly ICG Commerce, and conducted by Harris Interactive. Administered to more than 300 Fortune 1000 executives, the survey finds that in the coming year 60 percent of respondents will focus on non-people-related cost reductions as the major source of funds for investments in innovation and growth.

Next Generation Moves Beyond Demand/Supply Balancing

Analyst Insight: It's been another year of exciting times within supply chain management, especially with regard to S&OP - as we continue to improve upon a 35-year-old process of balancing demand and supply. Approximately 85 percent of supply chain management professionals around the globe say they are exercising the S&OP process (informal polling of approximately1,000 execs over the past year). About 65 percent of those professionals are positioned in Stage I or II of AMR's (now Gartner) S&OP Maturity Model. While this is positive news, it's clear that globalization of our supply chains requires more than just S&OP basics. - Gregory L. Schlegel, adjunct professor, supply chain risk management, Lehigh University Graduate Program

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Driving Business Value Through S&OP and IBP

Analyst Insight: Economic challenges have kept sales and operations planning at the forefront of the supply chain executive's mind. Research has successfully identified the financial benefits that S&OP and integrated business planning (IBP) bring to the table: for example, the Aberdeen Group points to best-in-class companies and the two- to six-times benefits they gained in several key metrics, especially gross margin, in comparison with other companies that did not employ S&OP. Nari Viswanathan, vice president, solutions architecture, Steelwedge Software

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