Dealing With Cultural Problems
IT Solutions Are Not a Technology Fix for Corporate Culture Problems. IT
solutions may help you break down internal silos and support collaboration
between
customer service, management and
product development. In addition
to helping you respond more quickly to changing business demands, better
management of the service side will give you a more complete picture of your
customers. That, in turn, will help you better serve customers and create
long-term loyalty. SCM software is not a technology fix for a
corporate culture
problem however; you should only look at it if your internal
business processes will support it.3
Case in Point
Procter
& Gamble
P & G reorganized its product supply chain into
a superfunctions unit by combining formerly independent functions of
purchasing, engineering, and distribution. A product supply manager was
created for each division and the functions report to him. These measures
reduced flow time and inventories, and increased on-time delivery and
quality.
Case in Point
GE
GE actively draws on the experience of
its various suppliers when
designing new products. It also works with suppliers to teach them
what it know about building
winning organizations.
Established in 1995,
GE Equity,
a business unit within GE Capital, invested nearly $4 billion in 300
businesses by 2000; of those 40% represent opportunities that emerged
inside GE; two-thirds of ventures sell products and services to GE.
Currently GE Equity invests between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion
annually in ventures.
Value investing – using
corporate
venture investments to help GE businesses grow – is the main mission
of GE Equity. Ideally, each and every of GE Equity's investments adds
value to both GE and the start-up. Before investing in a venture, GE
Equity determines if a synergetic relationship between the venture and
one of more of GE's businesses is possible.
One of the goals of GE Equity is
to extend GE's management and operating systems to the portfolio companies.
GE Equity also created Community.com as a portal for the companies in which
GE Equity has invested so they could come together and interact. Using this
web-tool, the companies are able to sell to one another and take advantage
of GE's purchasing power...
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