Steve Brady's blog

Mark Roberti has written a very good article over at RFIDJournal.com "What the RFID Industry can Learn from Steve Jobs." Mark makes, as always, very good points. It should come as no surprise that some of the aspects of products that Steve Jobs tackled (simplicity, focus on the consumer not the technology). Go read the article, and see not only how the RFID industry can learn, but also, think about how you could do your job differently!

I had a discussion today with a few colleagues in a conversation hosted by VICS.org and in that conversation we talked about how organizations can use "social media" and "social networking" to help get their message out. I think we can all agree that what we are doing is important. If it wasn't I would hope we aren't doing it. But sadly, we are not always able to share that important work with others. After giving it some brief thought, and observing how others use social media, here are some of my "guidelines for social engagement."

A recent study by Customer Growth Partner seems to indicate that Target is beating Wal-Mart on Wal-Mart's home turf. Now the study they conducted (as reported in Chicago Breaking News) is limited in scope. It only looked at 35 brand name items in 3 states, but it does seem to mirror experiences seen by consumers nationally. The question is--how? How have they been able to quietly orchestrate this quiet coup? From notional studies does by my students, it appears that while Wal-Mart has focused on perfecting the supply chain, Target has worked diligently on the last 100 feet. That is, Target has been working to ensure that a product, once in the store, makes it into the consumer's hands. They have done this through the application of technology and a customer-centric view of the store.

I was reading through the Sourcing Innovation blog today (an interesting read btw) and came across a post mentioning that when you have to expedite a package there is little choice--FedEx or UPS. Of course, that left off DHL, but then again, it is a distant third.

I have been working on a draft document seeking to explain how a large not-for-profit organization can grow into the future, and do so by seeking funding from the government and the community. As I pondered ways this could be done I was brought back to my discussion here, and the research I conducted with LMI back in 2007.

My friend Joe Tillman is at the CSCMP (Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals) 2010 conference this week and he has been acting as the "roving digital reporter" recording interviews all week long. This is his first effort at this sort of reporting, and I think he has done a great job with technology he already has (for instance, he just used his Droid phone to do the recording!) I recommend his interviews to you, if you are interested in getting a small flavor of what you are missing at CSCMP this year.

My friends Joe Tillman and Kate Vitasek have written a very timely article discussing the "perfect order." What they point out is that, while service providers may have "perfect order fulfillment" as their goal, you won't get there if you don't have as your measure of perfection the same measure as your customer. They do use a very timely approach, expressing the perfect order in terms that would satsify Ralphie, from "A Christmas Story." The article is well worth your read.

Are you a Supply Chain Professional that is on Twitter? We are developing a community of Supply Chain folks that are twitter. We are simply registering our Twitter name, and SC areas of interest, in a Google form, and then when you view the published form, you can see all those who have also "self-identified" as Supply Chain Twitterers.

I was involved in a research effort where we explored industry “best practices” in achieving “Outcome Focused Performance.” In a nutshell, we were trying to discover how the best organizations subjugate what they do to the Outcome (with a capital O) that they hoped to achieve.