LogisticsWeek May 2012

Future Supply Chains, India’s larg-est supply chain company, plans to raise a second round of private equi-

ty funding to diversify into new consum-er-driven sectors as retail growth in the country shows signs of moderation.

The company, part of the Future Group, which runs the country’s top retailer Pan-taloon Retail, earns most of its revenue providing services to affiliated companies such as the Big Bazaar hypermarket chain.

“Retail industry’s expansion plans in the past 1-2 years have been witnessing a scale-down,” Chief Executive Anshuman Singh told Reuters.

“So we identified drivers of growth in the consumer-driven sectors instead of fo-cusing just on retail.”

High inflation and interest rates have hurt consumer spending which along-with a lack of funding and high real estate costs has hurt expansion plans of Indian retailers.

Expectations that India’s capital-starved retail industry would get a boost from the entry of global chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Carrefour were thwarted late last year when India back-

tracked on a plan to allow foreign super-markets.

Future Group has had long-running talks about joining forces with Carrefour when the French giant enters the India market.

Future Supply Chains, which is looking to the consumer goods, autos and phar-maceuticals industries to power growth, hopes to finalise private equity funding in the next three months, Singh said, with-out giving details. It also plans to serve the burgeoning online commerce market.

The company plans to use the funds to invest Rs four billion to expand its ware-house capacity. In 2009, it received $30 million from Fung Capital, the private equity arm of Hong Kong-based supply chain giant Li & Fung Group.

InterviewWe never rest on our laurels

Column CSR: Magic Or Myth?

Arnie Bornstein, Head, Corporate Communications, BDP International is a frequent visitor to Singapore to keep in close contact with his business associates.

Don’t Look For Perfect Fruit

`25logisticsweek.com

May 1-15, 2012

PAGE 5 PAGE 10

The company hopes to earn between 50-60 percent of its revenues from exter-nal clients in 2012/13 from 40 percent now.

The supply chain industry is in its in-fancy in a country where cities can be thousands of miles apart, connected by pot-holed roads or creaking railways, and an estimated 30 percent of fresh produce spoils before it gets to market.

Big chains such as Wal-Mart have ar-

gued that they can invest heavily into sup-ply chain infrastructure.

Singh downplayed any disappointment over the delay in foreign supermarkets entering India.

“Our business plans are independent of whether or not Walmart or Carrefour come in. If they do, we are prepared. But in the coming years, the share of retail in our growth will be very small,” Singh said.

Mitigation of food wastage is the core concept that must drive thought behind India’s food supply chain development, whether cold or ambient. Cold is when food is put under refrigeration through ap-plication of energy and ambient is when it is not. Our cold chain must step in to prevent food losses, while preserving nu-trition and taste. Heaps of good food is wasted when there is a grading process and aesthetics (the look of the food item) is emphasized. India does not need this misplaced direction. We can’t waste and we do not have a choice.

Future Supply Chain Eyes Private Equity Funding To Drive Growth

News Desk

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

We have poor farmers on one hand and the case of millions of hungry on the other. We have spiralling demand driven food inflation and we have pressure of rising population. If India fails to solve the puzzle of its food losses, India’s social economy will be forced to enter the ‘one-way only’ road to devastation. The world can waste food but India absolutely does not have that liberty.

Food is wasted from production all the way to plates — and this happens ev-erywhere in the world.

According to the Food and Agriculture

The company plans to use the funds to invest Rs 4 billion to expand its warehouse capacity.

It was President John Kennedy who said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.”

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Some significant events and news that took place last fortnight.

Highmark Starts SCM Firm

Highmark Inc., the state’s largest health insurance company, has started a supply chain management company under the leadership of a former UPMC executive that the insurer says will help hospitals reduce costs.

ProtoCo Supply Chain Partners is the latest addition to High-mark’s emerging integrated health care delivery system. The new system, to be anchored by the five-hospital West Penn Allegheny Health System, is being established by the health insurer to com-pete with Western Pennsylvania’s dominant hospital system, UPMC.

ProtoCo Supply Chain Partners will manage the supply chain and handle purchasing for West Penn Allegheny, which Highmark is try-ing to buy for $475 million. The acquisition awaits approval from the state Insurance Department.

ProtoCo, which has 50 employees in Pittsburgh and expects to add 30 by the end of the year, hopes to save West Penn Allegheny $100 mil-lion over the next five years. West Penn Allegheny spends about $480 million a year buying supplies for its hospitals, the company said.

St. Vincent Health Center in Erie and the five-hospital West Vir-ginia United Health System have signed up to have ProtoCo manage their supply needs. And the company is in discussions with other hospitals.

In addition to the West Penn Allegheny acquisition, Highmark has said it will spend $500 million on its integrated delivery sys-tem to acquire private physician practices, build outpatient centers across the region and provide other services.

Highmark and UPMC announced a deal that will allow Highmark members to retain in-network access at UPMC facilities through the end of 2014. The two organizations’ previous reimbursement con-tracts had been set to expire on June 30, 2013.

Panalpina Selects RedPrairie Supply Chain SuiteRedPrairie Corp., a global supply chain and retail technology pro-vider, has entered a strategic partnership with the Panalpina Group to provide a complete supply chain execution platform to support the expansion of Panalpina’s worldwide logistics operations. Panal-pina will be able to benefit from RedPrairie’s extensive supply chain suite including warehouse, workforce, and transportation and bill-ing solutions.

Panalpina is one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions, combining air and ocean freight with a wide range of val-ue-added logistics and supply chain services. Operating a global net-work with 500 branches in more than 80 countries, Panalpina also works closely with partner companies in an additional 80 countries. Panalpina employs approximately 15,500 people worldwide.

Brightstar Selected As dtac Thailand’s Exclusive Supply Chain ProviderBrightstar, the world’s largest specialized wireless distributor and a global leader in services and solutions for the wireless industry, has been appointed as the exclusive supply chain provider to dtac Thai-land, one of the country’s leading mobile operators and part of the Telenor Group of Companies. This three-year agreement includes

strategic sourcing, device management, supply chain planning, channel support and warehousing and logistics services.

“This agreement between Brightstar and dtac couldn’t have come at a better time, as smartphone adoption has accelerated, and Thai-land is gearing up for the roll out of 3G networks,” said dtac spokes-person Petter Furberg, Chief Marketing Officer of dtac. “Brightstar’s proven track record and end-to-end suite of supply chain services will enable dtac to surpass our customers’ demand for devices, and leveraging our new network capabilities will open up a world of new and exciting communication possibilities for them.”

The dtac agreement is part of a growing list of supply chain ser-vice engagements led by Brightstar on behalf of leading operators around the world. In mature markets, such as Thailand, Brightstar helps operators increase consumer loyalty and drive ARPU by deliv-ering a better and standardized product and service, resulting in an improved end-user experience.

“We are pleased to work with dtac, as they continue their 3G build out, which is driving increased smartphone demand,” said Arturo Osorio, President of Brightstar Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa. “Our services will provide a complete end-to-end supply chain solution that includes sourcing 3G devices and improving on-line stock and claimed product monitoring and tracking to ensure product availability for dtac’s customers.”

Brightstar’s services help customers improve the execution of their core business strategy by managing the wireless customer relationship, increasing customer satisfaction and optimizing the performance of their supply chains.

Amazon Supply Fuels Disruptive Force To Industrial Supply ChainAmazon has launched a new online e-commerce offering — Ama-zonSupply.com — which is aimed at business, scientific and com-mercial customers and offers products like abrasives & finishing, cutting tools, fasteners, fleet & vehicle maintenance, hydraulics, pneumatics & plumbing, janitorial & sanitation, lab & scientific, materials, occupational health & safety, office, power & hand tools for sale.

It offers more than 500,000 items and the same shipping terms as its regular customers – free two-day shipping for purchases above $50 and Amazon Prime members. It also offers a free 365-day return policy, a dedicated customer service center and lines of credit for businesses. [1]

Amazon, which launched as an online book store has branched into many different verticals, and now sells almost everything on-line.

Amazon Supply originated from Amazon’s acquisition of Small Parts in 2005. Small Parts initially targeted just the medical supply and research industries, but Amazon is clearly aiming much higher now. After disrupting the consumer retail space, it is now targeting the business, industrial, scientific and commercial customers — es-sentially the supply chain.

Amazon competes in the e-commerce and e-content space with companies such as eBay and Apple.

We currently have a $205 Trefis price estimate for Amazon, which stands nearly 5% above its market price. Its e-commerce busi-ness accounts for almost all of its value.

I was pleasantly surprised to be talking to a woman who heads the supply chain of a mid-sized

company manufacturing a mass market product. And while she has earned several laurels in handling a supply-chain that calls for austerity measures, other things surprised me too. She has spent the first 15 years of her career setting up chemical and steel plants and helping them to realize commercial production.

Not a big deal. But having worked for a supply-chain and logistics magazine for almost three years now, this is the first time I met a woman heading (actually executing) the daily grind of logistics and the supply chain for a company. And although the lady discussed here may like to say that supply chain happened by chance, she has done some pretty marvelous work. At a time when companies are constantly targeting the high maintenance supply chains within their companies, seeking out a woman makes sense.

A woman brings with her a sense of balance, and make good managers. Especially in supply chain, giving the reins to a woman would also assure controlled costs. Since certain costs are imperative, she would know what corners to cut.

I would like to suggest that more women enter the supply chain industry instead of turning up their noses thinking that it’s a man’s domain. Since we write exclusively about supply chain, we should know.

Jayashree K MendesEditor, LogisticsWeek

Editor’s Note

Woman On Top

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Organization (FAO), the challenge of food loss is universal, regardless of technology differences. They peg world food losses at an aston-ishing 40-percent level. FAO works with the pristine agenda of mak-ing every possible ounce of grown food succeed in its journey to a mouth somewhere on the planet.

I have provided expertise to the veritable who’s who of the global supply chain leaders of the west. However, in all my years with these companies, we never once claimed to be in the business of serving interests of the world’s hungry. Thankfully, I don’t see the business like that any longer. All that we did back then was to give our market ev-ery type of produce all the year round. Our cold chains were not engineered to reduce food wast-age, they were there to concen-trate on food aesthetics and qual-ity. We did that gloriously well. The focus of the world has to change and fao is trying to bring this about. I am a convert.

I am on mission to marry what I learnt in the west about food preservation with the loss preven-tion needs we have down here in India. A combination of the two

methods helps people do good-business and do good both at the same time. The world must lead India and India certainly must lead the world in reducing wast-age. This is not just the new man-tra of piety but this according to me is the new mantra of making loads of money. Going by FAO’s 40-percent wastage rule and ap-plying it to India’s agri-GDP figure leads you to a realm that will shat-ter Warren Buffet’s own train of thought. There is a $100-billion-per year opportunity hidden in India’s annual food wastage vault.

Using cold chain applications in transportation and storage, quite a fair portion of this pro-duce can immediately be saved. Cold stores are necessary to pre-serve seasonal baseline staples like potatoes. Like my pal P Kohli, the cold chain expert, says with the cold chain you buy time. This buying of time in the cold store is really an essential for food supply planning, not just profiteering.

The cold chain is a virtual food creator. It brings to the market food that would otherwise be lost. So it is a good immediate step.

Finally, it is higher yields that will really breathe life into the farming sector in India. That

will, of course, spin from aggre-gation of farms, if and when In-dia can make the contract farm-ing concept kosher. Right now, land-leasing is a can of worms no politician has the guts to touch — even if it is not an impossible change to promote and execute. The right politics to achieve this and much more is not far for India. Educated kids of farm-ers will not fight each other but will combine their holdings for mechanized farming to be-come possible. That is when the big change will come. The cold chain can start a side revolution of increasing produce numbers to market and do so by convert-ing waste into wealth, without imposing on anybody’s revenue.

Cold stores don’t make vast commercial sense in the pres-ent environment. The ware-housing deficit, especially cold storage, will find ways to prog-ress from a chain cost model into a chain value model. And this puzzle will be solved with new eyes of the educated young that look at old problems with a more enabled outlook.

Some people in government talk of agri-market reforms but it is not easy to pull this off

surgically. We must take cold chain awareness to the grass-roots because this ‘cold swell’ will make farmers learn of al-ternative routes to market. They don’t have to be at the mercy of a poor solution. Cold chain can fire that change. Government is going to have to understand that this swell can be stirred through awareness and capacity building and never by doling out diktats and subsidies. Cold chain is the market lifeline for the farmer because it buys him alternatives to capitalize on his produce.

India’s cold chain must carry what the farm produces. This is where the west makes a mistake. The uniform-size same-color fruit is a result of a lot of rejec-tions. This picking and choosing sounds like a completely insen-sitive idea when you know that 25,000 people die of hunger every single day in the world. I

should not care about the beauty of my fruit if it comes at such a cost. India as the mother heri-tage of humanity must not fall for fascination. Our cold chain is meant for preventing food loss and not for pampering the rich — we should not forget this.

Our bananas are tasty enough. We certainly don’t want to waste the bunches that bend at a differ-ent angle and do not have stick-ers pasted on each one. Like the apples from New Zealand that surely can’t keep doctors away more than our Golden Delicious can. We are a sane nation with strong preservation instincts: our cold chain needs to assimi-late that ethos. May no food be wasted, may no one ever go hun-gry. Via cold chains.”

Cold stores don’t make vast commercial sense in the present environment. The warehousing deficit, especially cold storage, will find ways to progress from a chain cost model into a chain value model.

Sushil Bhan is a strategy and techni-cal operations veteran of 25 years. This article was written for Tehelka.


“ We never rest on our laurels”

You have come a long way from 1966 from being a freight forwarder to handling intimidating logistics of oil & gas, chemicals, healthcare, etc. How have you gathered the skill sets along the way to mature to this stage?

We are a privately, family-owned company as well as a non-asset based business. Our three most precious as-sets are: people, processes and technology. The company was founded in 1966 and in 2011 we celebrated its 45th anniversary. Over the years, the developments of our ser-vices are skill sets and technology. Our business model is customer intimacy model. The company’s strategic direc-tion has always been and will continue to be driven by our customers - what they need, where they are grow-ing, what markets they are moving to. We are a US-based company that is based in Philadelphia. When I joined the company 15 years ago, we had 1100 employees, now we have approximately 3400 employees around the world. The fastest growing regions are in Asia-Pacific, followed by Latin America and the Middle East. Singapore is where our regional headquarter is located and has been part of BDP Enterprise since 1995. In essence, our strategic direc-tion has always been driven by our customers.

You manage lead logistics for some of the world’s largest manufacturing companies? What is the differ-ence in lead logistics and other services that you offer your clients?

When it comes to international trade and the trans-portation logistics and logistics aspects, one of the things that differentiate BDP from our larger competitors is that we look at each customer’s needs as being unique. So rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, we go to our customers, listen and ask questions to understand their needs better. Above and beyond the core services that we provide, we endeavor to earn the privilege to be able to combat what our client has set and after listening and research, we turn to them with recommendations on how they can remove or avoid costs in the logistics and transportation processes. Doing all of those often set out greater visibility which of course, is where our technology tools came in. Our founder Richard Bolte Se-nior realized way back in the 1970s that the information about the movement of cargo was going to be as just as important and sometimes, from a strategic standpoint, more important that the physical movement of cargo. So, dating back to the 1970s, BDP began to invest very sig-nificantly in IT. Today, more than 10% of our employees are IT professionals around the world. But at the end of the day, it is ultimately about designing, listening to our customers and rolling up our sleeves and going back to them with process improvements that are going to avoid or remove costs from the per unit delivered price of their goods.

You offer your clients BDPSmart to enable them to track and trace their consignments, among other things. Could you explain in detail how BDPSmart works?

BDPSmart is an online sweep of customer service ap-plications that provide both tactical information for front line decisions support as well as strategic information that enable our customers to improve processes and re-

duce costs. From a tactical standpoint, real-time informa-tion is the physical status of the movement of their cargo from as well as the status of the documentation, such as a clearing outbound regulatory agencies, inbound customs clearance and meeting the regulatory requirements of clearing customs. It is very much a tactical tool that a lo-gistics transportation manager would look at, but at the same time it is also a strategic tool given its robust ability to create performance metrics around a variety of activi-ties in the logistics and transportation process.

One of the other aspects about the tool from a report-ing standpoint is that BDPSmart can provide information to a number of cross functional stakeholders, such as pro-curement, logistics, regulatory and compliance functions in the customer’s company. Each of these cross functional stakeholders can configure and customize BDPSmart to provide them with the necessary information they need to perform their roles more effectively and efficiently which in essence, improves their processes.

In other words, BDPSmart is an intelligent program that pushes the relevant information based on your re-quirements every single day. BDPSmart utilizes applica-tions that we have procured from technology companies such as Oracle. We have utilized external support, but the programming and the function is BDP-owned. Increasing-ly there has been a tremendous interest among our cli-ents for BDPSmart due to its transparency and customiz-ability functions which affect cost accounting associated with logistics and transportation.

We never sit and rest on our laurels because of the fast pace of change and, of course, the rapid advancement in technology. Presently, we are exploring on how to mi-grate tool work onto tablets. Companies like BDP must be able to make it as easy and convenient as possible because increasingly our clients are migrating to these

tools. A few years ago we were using PC, yesterday it was a laptop but today it is a tablet. We have an internal team we call BDPSmart Next Generation and they are constant-ly developing what that next generation tool is and every quarter, new updates with fine tunes are released.

Considering that you run operations at a global level and have a large clientele base, how do you juggle process control and management of multiple nodes for them?

In essence, a lead logistics provider (LLP) manages other logistics service providers, as well as other nodes in logistics and transportation phase of the supply chain usually on regional or global bases. So, an LLP manages other providers as well as carriers, warehouses and part of that LLP solution involves bringing a single, standard-ized global process onto the table for the client. And the heart of this process is the visibility of information, in-formation quality and access to that central depository of information that so many despaired nodes in the supply chain contribute to. Generally speaking, it is about man-aging other logistics providers and nodes in the process and being that central repository and manager of infor-mation and data that we turn for information, something which the client ultimately uses as knowledge for deci-sion making.

One of the things I mentioned earlier was that BDP is a privately-owned, family-owned company and this is one of those success stories that started with small be-ginnings. The company started with our founder who had a manual typewriter and a one-room office in Phila-delphia in 1966. Today, we have about 3350 employees, fully-owned offices, with joint ventures or partners in approximately 120 countries. The ownership of BDP and the culture of the company have always embraced the small company customer service culture. A kind of ser-vice that a small store at the end of the block might have, where you get to know your customers, you develop these enduring relationships. The larger a company gets, the more challenging it is to keep that genie in a bottle so to speak, of zealous customer service and enduring re-lationships, but we hold on very closely to the business model of being small enough to care, but also being large enough to leverage value on a global scale. How do we do that? We work very hard not to operate like a large company as we want to establish strong interpersonal relationships and communication among BDP colleagues around the world.

BDP people around the world know each other by name. Depending on the time zone, people can pick up the phone anytime and be in touch. A colleague from Hong Kong or Shanghai knows his/her counterpart on a first name basis in Brazil or Belgium. Much of it involves holding very close notion of keeping bureaucracy to a minimum and a flat management structure in the way we operate. So doing that needsgood interpersonal rela-tionships, strong communications, great information vis-ibility. E-mails are wonderful tool, but we really believe in picking up the phone and having that live voice on the line. The same thing goes for our customers. As I was using the analogy of a small corner store that a family

INTERVIEW

Arnie Bornstein, Head, Corporate Communications, BDP International is a frequent visitor to Singapore to keep in close contact with his business associates. Serene Pan, our correspon-dent in Singapore, caught up with him during one such visit.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7


Keep in mind that companies want to produce their product. They’re not so interested in producing

all of these various subcomponents, so the more that they can get from less, as far as numbers of suppli-ers, the easier it is — provided their supply base does good work.

Dane Belden, President, McGregor Metalworking Cos,

on how his company always looks at shortening clients’ supply-chains.

‘Lean’ is one of the components [of ] how we think about building better working conditions. Be-

cause we think it’s the business conditions that enable a lot of the additional work we do.

Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of sustainable business

and innovation.

It is wrong to assume that there is a bias against Indian employees at Maruti. Perhaps, it has not come to such

a stage where they (Japanese management) completely trust Indians to handle the company, which has now become very big.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman Bhargava , on why there has been no Indian representation on the board.

There is no point in entering a market unless there is a potential. Which is why we are now expand-

ing aggressively in India, especially in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Harikirat Singh, MD, Woodland,

on his decision to open 60 stores this year alone.

The year ahead will usher in the next big disruptor for the retail

industry — digital voice technology. The conversation will be between

the customer and the retailer and, increasingly, it will take place between the retailer and company

data. The chatter has already begun.

Straights And Bends

In the past year, 60-65 per cent of our business would have been touched by a relaunch or a new activity to strengthen or refresh

our brands. That is the impact of innovation and the intensity with which we are treating innovation.

-- Nitin Paranjpe, MD & CEO, Hindustan Unilever,

on how innovation will play a key role in defining the future of the company.

Adoption of digital technology is something every institution needs to embrace for getting better

insights. This propels a shift towards adoption of cloud, mobile, big data. These are driving growth.

N Chandrasekaran, MD & CEO, TCS,on why banking, financial services and the insurance sector continue to be under pressure.

When we joined this project, we just had a piece of land. That was not enough. Moreover, this

project was lying dead for long and this acted as an-other handicap. What I want to say here is that one formula cannot apply to all projects.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Chairman & CEO, ArcelorMittal,

after inaugurating the Bathinda oil refinery and how he feels bad about the delays his

projects face in India.

We have conversations on affordability at our meetings. One thing we believe in is that

affordability is a state of mind, not a state of wallet. Absolute prices don’t matter anymore. For us, people are willing to pay a premium.

Jayant Murty, Director of strategy, media and integrated marketing, Intel Asia-Pacific

on how despite India being a price-sensitive market, it does not pose a challenge to Intel.

The concept of “augmented humanity” began to crystallize with the

introduction of Siri as part of the iPhone 4S rollout. Tapping into the power of

voice response changes the way people interact with their smartphones — and

looking ahead, it could reshape the way consumers shop.


might operate, a client of ours want to be able to have a familiar voice on the line, someone whom they know, who knows their performance over time, someone that they trust. That is the kind of the key to going from the regional company to being global; people, good people, good processes, strong technology tools in the hands of those good people.

You appear to have tie-ups globally for warehouses for your clients. How do you manage that? Explain in detail how you offer warehousing space to your clients at the location of choice.

I think a lot of it has to do with being non-asset based. Unlike some of ours much larger competitors, we have the autonomy to not necessarily drive business through owned or highly leveraged assets such as warehouses. Rather, we listen to what our client’s specific needs are. I am using the example of a warehouse. We have the latitude, the freedom, and the autonomy to line up and work with a warehouse partner whose capabilities meet that client’s needs. For example, if a client is involved with the shipping, warehousing and distribution of haz-ardous materials or dangerous cargo, those facilities must meet extremely strict environmental and safety requirements. Rather than owning those facilities, we work with partners who own and/or even those who are ready to invest in retrofitting and improvisation of various aspects, such as climate control or sprinkler systems and segregation of one category of product in the warehouse from another category of product in the warehouse. Our ability to manage is in part, based on our autonomy and the freedom of being non-asset based allows us to make recommendations that meet the spec-ifications within the scope of our customer’s needs.

From an operational standpoint, the company, depart-ments, various stations or offices in countries around the world are going to work very closely with their counterparts of BDP and, of course, it is all going to be driven by the customer’s need. This is part of third-party provider’s responsibility to understand in-depth and per-sonal client’s requirements and being able to design so-lutions and manage services on an international scale. In essence, this is what we do and our ability to do it well is what differentiates us from some of our larger competi-tors because, as I mentioned earlier, we do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all solution, but rather each client, even in the same industry vertical sector, has different requirements that are consistent with their company’s business culture. Some clients, for example, who use BDPSmart, want reports every day. Other clients will configure BDPSmart to get reports every month. Again, each client, based on culture and operating procedures, has different needs.

We are always, as a matter of standard procedure, monitoring our own performance as well as perfor-mance of our carrier partners and other nodes in the supply chain. Part of the procedure is to revisit and re-flect upon ourselves - ask the customer how we are do-ing, what we can do to continue to raise the bar from a performance standpoint. And every time we raise that bar and improve the processes that effect on cost avoid-ance or cost savings. And in today’s day and age, it is no longer simply about cheap transportation rates. Increas-ingly, over the last decade, financial leadership within major international companies that are manufacturing and trading products on a global scale, the practices of supply chain, logistics and transportation. Those practic-es have come under the wash fly of chief financial man-agement within companies and increasingly. In near future, CFOs are going to supply chain, logistics and transportation people and say: “Find additional ways to reduces expense from the supply chain”.

Global Network Service Providers is not a concept well known. How does BDP International pull it off considering that you have mid-market logistics affili-ations?

The word global world network has, perhaps, a few different definitions. The semantics of the word global network, for example, BDP has a global network of fully-owned offices, subsidiaries, joint ventures and global network partners. I am going to try to answer the ques-tion within the context of both BDP’s global network and that part of our global network includes companies that we do not own or those who have joint ventures with us. These joint ventures are often in certain emerg-ing markets or certain secondary markets. To a great ex-tent our growth is really driven by where our customers go in terms of production and consumption markets. So, if our customers have expanded into growth markets in Asia, more recently into the Middle East and South America, BDPs growth has in essence tracked along where our customers go. Generally, the process happens in a way which we will enter a new geographic market working with a partner, a company that we do not have a financial number, that we do not have equity inter-est in or that is not a joint venture, but there would be a company similar to ours, often smaller, that has also strong management, great understanding of local busi-ness practices and regulatory practices, healthy balance sheets and good reputation. Initially, we may be work-ing with a global network partner and as that market-place begins to mature, the relationship might go on as a partner relationship or it could often morph a joint venture and then it could even morph into acquisition. Our growth is really driven by where our customers go in terms of production and consumption markets.

And part of our culture is the belief that measurement of successful performance is not how many times you can stick your logo on a shingle outside of company. Many companies have tried to grow strictly through acquisi-tion. In BDP’s business model, we do engage in strategic acquisitions, but performance must come first and, again, the measure of performance is about quality service first.

We are in a process of migrating to a single, global ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system platform. IT is not a core service of a logistics provider, it is a tool. Our owner and the next generation of this family have made a tremendous and substantial investment in IT for a company of our size. Around 10% to 15% of our em-ployees are actually IT professionals, from programmers to designers, to project managers, to hardware people,

software people. Our IT function in BDP is in essence a customer service function to BDP internal operating customers around the world and our own consumers. A number of our IT people have strong background from an operation standpoint in logistics and transportation processes. They are very much IT people who are very well versed in the operations of logistics and transporta-tion, they comprehend quickly and design around that knowledge within a short amount of time.

Do give us a glimpse into what are the various serv-ices you manage for all MNC clients. Please explain in terms of the various sectors

From a core services standpoint, our portfolio runs the gambit from transportation, procurement and man-agement to inbound logistics, which is customs clear-ance and the management of other aspects of inbound logistics. And outbound logistics which is freight for-warding, working with warehousing organizations, car-riers, warehousing management that we talked a little bit earlier, project logistics, oil and gas logistics, logistics in other verticals such as chemicals, healthcare, life sci-ences, retail and consumer goods. We do not endeavor to do all the things for all customers. If it is not an area that we have expertise in, we are not going to compete for that kind of business because we stick to our knit-ting and focus our energies on those things that we do well. Beyond those core services, trade, security, health safety and environmental regulations are making sup-ply chain management much more complex for global shippers progressively. Those types of services, such as consulting and delivering specific services for our cus-tomers, are a big part of our portfolio as well. Some cus-tomers are looking for very robust solutions that involve control towers - logistics control towers that manage re-gions. And often they go to global tower that amalgam-ates all that data and turns it into performance infor-mation. Some clients may just want a core service, such as freight forwarding or transportation management or regulatory compliance, so it really varies. We have our core portfolio and we are very keen to go beyond that traditional tactical role and play a strategic role to our customers. Increasingly, we realized that as manufactur-ing companies prefer to stick with what they do best and their core competencies, we bring more value by outsourcing some of these functions on behalf of them.

At the end of the day, as I mentioned earlier, it is about delivering and executing services and solutions that are going to eliminate cost for our customers.

CONTINUED frOm PAGE 5

Four Soft, the IT services provider for the logistics and transportation sector is focusing on cloud computing.

The company has designed a cloud-based product for the small and medium enterprises for effective management of information flows covering the entire supply chain structure.

“We have already tied up with Amway and Toshiba for the product.

“We feel cloud-based logistics product will be at-tractive for companies, as this eliminates the need to install and run applications on the customer’s own systems,” Mr P. Srikanth Reddy, Chairman of the com-pany, told Business Line.

The company feels the global logistics and supply chain market will be looking for specialised software that focuses on continued technology advancement. Four Soft is competing with companies such as Kale Consultants and Take Solutions in this space.

Its product, SaaS, involves a suite of solutions on

cloud, using common platform for inter-operability across industries.

Its other products include solutions for freight for-warding and logistics, extended warehouse manage-ment, customs brokerage, shipping line execution, etc.

Four Soft, which is aiming at a net profit of Rs 15 crore this fiscal, feels that IT spends in the logistics sector are on the rise.

The Indian logistics industry is estimated at $130 billion and is expected to grow to $385 billion in the next four to five years.

A study by Mumbai-based Softlink Logistics last year had revealed that there is a significant increase in the number of companies planning to invest above Rs 1 crore on IT.

The survey had revealed that 37 per cent of the large companies with a turnover of Rs 250 crore felt that not finding suitable software is a barrier in adopt-ing IT.

Four Soft Bets Big On Cloud-Based Product For Logistics Sector


Online Grocery Retailing that too in ....IndiaWe are familiar with the concept of buying online books, electronic goods, gift articles, apparels. Today we are able to browse the products many times, com-pare products and even call up the customer care ex-ecutive to help us select the right product. But do we purchase grocery online (excluding the perishables) in India. I don’t think so. Even I do the shopping of grocery through supermarket or hypermarket. Do we know any e-retailer who sells grocery online? Will the grocery received online be in good condition? Will the grocery prices online be cheaper than our hyper-market/supermarket? All questions asked do we really need to purchase grocery online when we can get it in a nearby supermarket. Few would also argue that they can get them from local stores available in vicinity.

At present buying grocery online in India is not an attractive option, as compared to other categories. Among the top 20 e-retailers in India grocery is sold by just 28%. They would not be selling many items in grocery but keep it with other categories to have all products under one roof. Grocery includes Food items, Home and Personal care, Beverages, Staples etc which are the daily use items. This category alone has huge

potential to garner higher revenues than any other category.

In our daily life, we do not get time to buy grocery in weekdays. It has become a habit to buy it on week-ends and normally we purchase it for a month so that we do not take pain coming to hypermarket every week. We supplement it by buying few items from lo-cal stores in vicinity or nearby supermarket.

These are the activities we normally perform when buying from hypermarket. We have to drive down to get to the hypermarket store. We would look for the required product, have a look and feel of the product, look for good discounts, sometimes go for impulsive buying and check the expiry of product before keep-ing in the basket. Then go to the queue and wait for the turn to get the billing done. At peak time queue is normally longer and like us many purchase mostly on weekends hence it is bound to be there.

Well if the discount benefits for shopping at brick & mortar stores are available for us to shop online at the convenience of our home. Advantages of it would be hassle free shopping, no queues for payment, less time to shop, have the monthly requirement list saved with option of quantity to be changed, product compara-tive features, savings displayed and fuel saved to go to

the store physically & return. If we are availing online facility we would require the grocery to be delivered at our home, as per our convenient date and time slot. The returns facility should be available without any in-convenience. If the above conditions are met I think so we would be more than happy to shop grocery online.

There are very few e-retailers who have ventured full fledge into selling of grocery online in India. Browsing the present e-retailer selling grocery online one can find pictures for every product, home page mentions about the discount, shopping list saved with option to modify the item or quantity, savings displayed, points earned can be redeemed, free home delivery above cer-tain order value, convenient return policy, and delivery on preferred dates and in standard time slot. They are catering to specific area within a city. Being a very huge initiative with manpower and transportation involved it would take some months to cater in whole city. Once the volumes grow up it would be feasible to deliver products below certain order value. But nevertheless the process has just begun. It may soon follow with a suite of e-retailer venturing into selling grocery online.

Let me know if anybody has shopped grocery on-line or will you like to shop grocery online with the above features and what is your take on it.

Blogs, Journals, Book releases

Thermal Processing of Foods: Control and Automation K. P. Sandeep, Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell n 1̀0,410

The food industry has utilized automated control systems for over a quarter of a century. How-ever, the past decade has seen an increase in the use of more sophisticated software-driven, on-line control systems, espe-cially in thermal processing unit operations. As these software-driven control systems have be-come more complex, the need to

validate their operation has become more important. In addition to validating new control systems, some food companies have undertaken the more difficult task of validating legacy control systems that have been operat-ing for a number of years on retorts or aseptic systems.

Thermal Processing: Control and Automation presents an overview of various facets of thermal processing and packaging from industry, academic, and government representatives. The book contains information that will be valuable not only to a person interested in under-standing the fundamental aspects of thermal process-ing (eg graduate students), but also to those involved in designing the processes (eg process specialists based in food manufacturing) and those who are involved in proc-ess filing with USDA or FDA. The book focuses on techni-cal aspects, both from a thermal processing standpoint and from an automation and process control standpoint. Coverage includes established technologies such as re-torting as well as emerging technologies such as continu-ous flow microwave processing. The book addresses both the theoretical and applied aspects of thermal process-ing, concluding with speculations on future trends and directions.

Retail Marketing and Branding: A Definitive Guide to Maximizing ROIJesko Perrey, Dennis Spillecke, Publisher: Wiley n `2,936

Today’s shoppers go online to re-search locations, compare prices or read reviews before they go to a store, and as soon as they are back home, they post details about their shopping experi-ence on Facebook or other social media platforms. Online agen-cies rave about viral campaigns, guerrilla marketing and 360° communication. IT specialists

are peddling one-to-one marketing tools and integrated customer data warehousing solutions.

Should retailers care about any of this? The authors of this book firmly believe that they should — but in an en-vironment of accelerating change, even veterans of the retail trade are looking for guidance on how to embrace the challenges thrown up by the evolving retail market-ing landscape:

How do I combine traditional and new marketing ve-hicles?

How can I stay on top of what my customers want?How can I reach them efficiently?Do they still look at leaflets, or should I shift local

marketing funds to social media? How can I leverage unique retail touch points, such as

the POS, for value creation?Successful retail management might once have

been about ‘just doing it’, but that is no longer the case. This book offers retail professionals practical and ro-bust ways to improve the performance of their mar-keting function and align marketing investments with business objectives.

This book consolidates the know-how of more than

30 practitioners in the field, created and refined over many years together with leading international compa-nies. It covers some of the latest and most sophisticated approaches to the subject, yet it is anything but a theo-retical treatise. The authors’ hands-on approach and the wealth of case examples make it an essential guide for all consumer-minded retailers.

(from the Foreword by Dr Klaus Behrenbeck, Director, McK-insey & Company, Inc., Leader Consumer Industries & Retail Group, Europe)

Retail Analytics: The Secret WeaponEmmett Cox, Publisher: Wiley n `2,400

Retailers collect a huge amount of data, but don’t know what to do with it. Retail Analytics not only provides a broad under-standing of retail, but also shows how to put accumulated data to optimal use. Each chapter cov-ers a different focus of the retail environment, from retail basics and organization structures to common retail database designs.

Packed with case studies and examples, this book in-sightfully reveals how you can begin using your business data as a strategic advantage.

Helps retailers and analysts to use analytics to sell more merchandise. Provides fact-based analytic strate-gies that can be replicated with the same success the au-thor achieved on a global level. Reveals how retailers can begin using their data as a strategic advantage.

Includes examples from many retail departments il-lustrating successful use of data and analytics.

Analytics is the wave of the future. Put your data to strategic use with the proven guidance found in Retail Analytics.

Books

Blogs


Leaner, Faster, Greener: Nike’s nNew Supply Chain GoalsNike is making some big changes to how it man-

ages its supply chain. As part of its sustainability report, the retailer said it plans to launch a new

manufacturing index in 2012 that will place factories’ sustainable practices “on equal footing” with the tradi-tional supply-chain measures of quality, cost and deliv-ery. The index will now include environmental and la-bor-sustainability metrics, according to the report. And Nike will use that index to evaluate its suppliers.

It’s an interesting move with potentially widespread implications globally among suppliers -- and would-be suppliers -- to Nike. And with other retailers -- includ-ing Walmart, which said last month that it was expand-ing its supplier scorecard program -- taking steps to add sustainability to its supply-chain requirements as well, it appears that the supply-chain landscape may be poised for a shakeup that could give greener and more socially responsible suppliers a competitive edge. Retail suppli-ers will likely be keeping a close watch on these leaders’ criteria, which will begin to define sustainability for dif-ferent products.

We recently caught up via phone with Hannah Jones, Nike’s vice president of sustainable business and innova-tion, for more insight into Nike’s goals and its manufac-turing index. Here’s an edited excerpt of our conversation:

GreenBiz: The report talks about making your fac-tories faster, leaner and more efficient. How do you accomplish that without descending into a Foxconn situation?

Jones: [There are] two elements to ‘lean.’ One is the pro-cess change piece of it, and the engineering change around how you think about products’ efficiencies and quality. And the other is really about the culture of empowerment that is core to making lean really work. For our industry, this is key. It requires…management [to] understand that the worker is the closest to the process and to the act of manufacturing and therefore has the greatest insight. And that actually what you need to do is put greater value on the worker and enable the worker to feel empowered, so that they can speak out and speak up and talk about where they can see improvements could happen.

It starts to change the conversation between the man-agers and the workers. It starts to change the conversa-tion with the management, in how they have to stop viewing workers as a cost and start seeing them as one of the core, valuable assets that they have. That makes them think more about turnover rates. It makes them think more about HR systems, it makes them think more about supervisors being trained in management and it makes them really think through how do they communicate, how do they work with the workers to retain them. Because they want to invest much more in them, in terms of building up skill sets.

So to us, ‘lean’ is one of the components [of ] how we think about building better working conditions. Because we think it’s the business conditions that enable a lot of the additional work we do, through our code of con-duct and through our Sustainability Manufacturing and Sourcing team. Then we have this new manufacturing index, which locks in performance on sustainability, performance on lean, performance on workers’ rights into the core conversation between the buyer and the supplier around where growth and volume will go and where orders will go.

What do your sustainability goals mean for current and potential suppliers to Nike?

I think it’s a shift. And I think that the shift that’s been happening over the last two or three years, that this report kind of begins to capture and signal, is that we have been rewiring the conversation internally and rewiring the conversation with our suppliers in which we really explain to them that there are some new rules of engagement. And that our sourcing strategy and our sustainability and working conditions strategies are one in the same. We’ve built a sourcing strategy that looks at having fewer partners for the longer term that are op-timized, to enable us to have those fewer partners. And then really building in to how we have a business discus-sion with them.

So if you think before, in our industry, the traditional conversation between a buyer and a supplier is one of cost, delivery on time and quality. Those are always the driving kind of indicators [determining] are we going to give you more orders or less orders? And so now what was done is we’ve said: sustainability. And I want to empha-size [that] when I say sustainability it includes workers’ rights. Sustainability is one-fourth of that equation now.

So our suppliers now know two things: one, their business with us is going to be dependent on how much they show their commitment to sustainability. And two, we’ve changed also from a ‘make your systems less bad’ [approach] to actually describing a vision of good. It’s saying if you’re going to be on the journey with us…we’re going to need you to really think about investing in your workers, investing in lean and investing in ef-ficiencies and green.

What do your suppliers need to do to stand out, to get good grades from your auditing team?

We have a whole set of indicators, performance indi-cators that they need to be meeting. So there are kind of

incentives along the way, but there are also sanctions for failing to meet standards and [for] repeat offences, which go up to and including termination of the relationship. If you look at some of the data in the labor section of this [report], you’ll see that we have eliminated a number of factories because of their unwillingness to consistently shift management strategy and culture [and] to build in sustainability and workers’ rights.

Other big retailers are on the sustainable supply-chain bandwagon: Walmart, for example, has a supplier scorecard program. Is the writing on the wall now for suppliers that transparency is needed to remain competitive?

I think the signals are getting louder and louder. I think what was a whisper is now a shout. I think that’s a good thing. And I think that a lot of our suppliers are be-ginning to wake up; that there are new rules of engage-ment and that they will be, in this era of transparency, owning their reputations. And that it will be important; that it is a competitive advantage.

How do you balance environmental and labor issues?We’ve been pursuing a huge amount of work

around… the labor side of things and the environmental side of things. And then you’ll see in the manufacturing index, the environment piece is coming into it. I think what you’re going to see is even more convergence in the years to come, where we pull all these different sorts of indicators together. And it’s a balancing act.

Where does Nike still need work to achieve its goals? Where are the places where you have the most catch-ing up to do?

There are different areas that I think about and that the team thinks about. We run sustainability now as you would almost an innovation pipeline. There are different kind of issues that hit at different times in that pipeline. For some issues that we have out there, there simply isn’t a solution yet that’s obvious. And what we need is… solutions. We need new technol-ogy and new chemistry, new materials, to swap out with the old. So there is an innovation challenge and it’s really about sending a signal to innovators in the company and outside the company, that we are in the hunt for alternatives.

As you get further down into the commercialization nature of things it’s about how you get mainstream adoption. Because at the moment sustainability, absent strong policy levers being pulled, faces a scaling chal-lenge. There is a cost to early leadership, and it’s the ear-ly cost of investing at a prototype level and all the money that goes into that R&D. So the faster we can get this to market and the faster we can get sustainable options to be the default, the more viable it becomes. It becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy in a very good way.

INTERVIEW

We need new technology and new chemistry, new materials, to swap out with the old. So there is an innovation challenge.

HannaH Jones, Vice President, Nike’s Sustainable Business and Innovation.


CSR: Magic Or Myth?

It has been bandied around as yet another corporate

“feel good” that is “trending” at the moment. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is fast becoming an industry in itself, interspersed in corpo-rate frameworks globally, and infused universally in standard business practices. Human Resources units are lavishing large budgets on CSR initia-tives in the quest for their holy grail, which is envisioning an engaged employee workforce but does this work? Is CSR good for business on a wider framework?

The Logistics Executive Em-ployment Market Survey 2012 explored these questions and the perception of CSR in the market place. The survey found that whilst CSR was a fo-cus for 74.2% of organizations, the respondents in leadership roles revealed that there were barriers to the wider adoption of CSR in the following areas: Cost, Unclear Benefits and lack of Senior Management Sup-port. This suggests that there is still some confusion at execu-tive level about the commercial benefits of CSR initiatives.

Defenders claim that CSR increases the virtue of the com-pany and employee brand. For example Human Resources professionals argue that CSR enhances employee engage-ment and the employee brand. It therefore increases employee retention and enhances talent acquisition strategies.

The counter argument how-ever is that most companies have yet to put clear measures in place that can articulate these benefits and the link to CSR. The reality is that share-holders are more likely to lean on executives to deliver clear metrics relating to profits rath-er than these soft targets.

The truth is that without hard metrics, CSR becomes largely ineffective. According to political scientist Brendan Nyan, it could be argue that CSR is an easily manipulated medium. “Much of what passes for CSR is just stroking the egos

COlUmN

of senior management. Having the corporation make contribu-tions to causes favored by se-nior management is, from their point of view, the best kind of charity, because they get to spend other people’s money rather than their own. (They still get all the glory, of course, at those nice Man of the Year dinners and at the country club bar.) That’s not in the interest of the corporation, it’s just a form of non-monetary compen-sation. And doing it is a breach of their fiduciary duty to share-holders, every bit as objection-able as using the corporate jet for their own pleasure trips”.

Of course there is the risk - or some more cynically would say scandal avoidance - side of CSR. Consumer activists have used their new-found media clout to bully corporates into action against social injustice. Business leaders have become painfully aware that consum-ers don’t just buy goods these days. No, these days they like to “interact” with their favor-ite brands. They are educated, market savvy and demanding. They belong to a modern global workforce that has toppled governments with Facebook during the spring uprisings and brought major Corporates shamed over poor business practices.

The only way forward for CSR it would seem is through a better understanding of this concept. Companies need to carefully prepare the way be-

fore implementing their CSR programs. Executive decision makers need to be better edu-cated on what a true CSR pro-gram involves. Employee in-volvement needs to be a driver of the concept from the outset and companies acting as the en-ablers. Clearly defined process-es and transparent metrics put in place. The concept of “social accounting/auditing” practices need to be implemented so that CSR responsibilities can be linked to outcomes in meeting the agendas of their corporate and community stakeholders. Transparency, accountabil-ity and ownership by all stake-holders are the underlying principles here and the key to success.

It isn’t surprising therefore that Executives are a bit re-sistance to embark on a CSR program considering that they invest their company profits on a process that they have little control over – as this is largely handed over to their staff – and are often being dictated to on who and how they can do busi-ness by consumer activists. It is therefore worth asking, what can CSR offer if it is done well?

Wejuan Yao, Director for China of Verite last year at the Supply CHIaNA 2011 Business Summit in Shanghai gave an impassioned presentation on “Trends in China Labor Rela-tions and the Implications on Supply Chain CSR Issues”.

Wenjuan is an example of modern China. She personifies in many ways the human chal-lenges faced by a workforce in an emerging economy. Her recent assignments have seen her consulting to foreign com-pany’s who are trying to man-age their corporate image by ensuring the labor conditions of their Chinese suppliers meet requirements. Workers’ condi-tions are highly topical all over the world and have become a subject of open debate, even in China. Wenjuan provided a new perspective and a voice to what was already a nervous murmur at the Conference from many large corporates in

attendance. That is, the dra-matic improvements in the Chinese economy that have led to the emergence of a new kind of Chinese worker who is edu-cated and a lot more aware and demanding than previously.

This is an issue about deal-ing with change more than anything. In Wenjung’s words “China’s economy, the interna-tional community, as well as all factories have been benefiting from the unlimited and well-disciplined cheap labor sup-plies in China over the past 30 year and we are now facing the turning point. When the tide goes down, the competition for survival will become fierce. Meeting CSR requirements may – finally -- become a real com-petitive advantage for them in the near future.”

In this case, Wenjung is act-ing as the conduit, she is using CSR policy to build a bridge, which is creating a new era in China’s economic history by and bringing cohesion through a process of radical change in employment conditions.

Of course we don’t all belong to large corporate entities. Suc-cessfully implemented CSR can also be found in smaller enti-ties that have the advantage of easier to access staff and more egalitarian teams. “There are some basic commonsense rules that can be applied to all com-panies from small to large who wish to ensure their CSR meets the rigors and changing de-mands of the market place” ac-cording to Kim Winter, CEO of Logistics Executive. Of course Kim would know all about this subject as he is not only the founder of Logistics Executive but also the co-founder and CEO of Oasis Africa, a leading charity organization which supports the orphaned chil-dren of the Kibera slums in Africa. At Logistics Executive there is a strong voluntary in-volvement by staff. “Often it’s the giving facet of the CSR ex-perience that is the most per-sonally rewarding,” says Kim. “It can act as a culturally defin-ing facet for your staff. It gives

all of us a sense of purpose and great pride to tell our story,” he continues. The extent of Logistics Executive’s commit-ment to Oasis Africa also acts as a brand differentiator with charity fundraising initiatives and events offering a fun and rewarding part of their client experience.

In simple terms if Corporate Responsibility is implemented effectively it acts as a business enabler that can serve two main purposes:

1. Risk Avoidance strategy - To prevent the company from making errors of judgment in their supply chain that will expose them to undue risk. These risks may include sourc-ing from disreputable suppliers who employing workers under poor conditions or who are not using environmentally sound practices. This is part of the corporate risk management strategy, a defensive approach to protect the company’s repu-tation.

2. Employer and Corporate Brand enhancer - An active com-munity initiative that is based on philanthropy and aligns with the corporate brand. This promotes the customer’s expe-rience of your brand and ties in with their values but it is only effective if employees drive it.

Wenjuan brought it all to-gether for everyone in her pre-sentation, by quoting President John Kennedy who said, “A ris-ing tide lifts all boats.” This res-onates more than ever today as global market growth and new technologies keep proving that we are all in this together.

It was President John Kennedy who said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” but is Corporate Social Responsibility all it’s cracked up to be? asks Darryl Judd, COO for Logistics Executive Group.

Darryl JuddCOO, Logistics Executive

The author can be reached at [email protected]

Darryl Judd, COO, Logistics Executive, has 20+ years of executive experience in aviation, supply chain and logistics transport industry, and held executive positions within the airline & aircraft leasing/charter industry. He is regularly called upon to manage key human resources consulting projects and supporting business to drive changes, particularly around M&A activity and international executive management.


INDIA

GOOD TO GO: GST Bill looks well on its way. The industry weighs in...10

STOPWATCH: Warehouses need to set labor standards. Here’s why...20How Atul Agarwal, Associate General Manager

(Supply-Chain), Dabur India Ltd., runs a lean

supply-chain for its over 300 products.

Page 24

LIFE SUPPLY

April 2011 Vol. 4 — No.8 `100INDIA

TElEcom

logisTics 20

Movement of telecom

network equipment opens

a window of opportunity

NEglEcTEd

waTErways 44

India is ignoring inland

waterways at its own

peril

low

adopTioN 24

Why WMS still does

not have enough

takers in India

amit mukherjee, Vice-

president (iT and supply chain)

and group cio at rpg, has

deployed exemplary supply-

chain strategies at spencer‘s

retail >> page 34

Method In Motion

October 2010 | Vol. 4 – No.2

IndIa’s LeadIng LOgIstIcs MagazIne

` 100

www.logisticswe

ek.com

RIGHT MOVES: What goes into choosing the right location for a warehouse...46

TOWERING ABOVE 38

Unravelling India’s telecom

logistics, end to end.

IA

GST Bill looks well on its way. The industry

GST Bill looks well on its way. The industry

Warehouses need to set labor standards. Here’s why...

ng L

A

ng L INDIAINDIA

TElEcom logisTics 20Movement of telecom network equipment opens a window of opportunity

NEglEcTEd waTErways 44India is ignoring inland waterways at its own peril

low adopTioN 24Why WMS still does not have enough takers in India

amit mukherjee, Vice-president (iT and supply chain) and group cio at rpg, has deployed exemplary supply-chain strategies at spencer‘s retail >> page 34

Method In Motion



` 100

www.logisticsweek.com

30

GET SET, GO 38The true story of supply-chain education in India.

October 2011 Vol. 5 — No.2 `100

Education

Special

Pg.38

bor standards. Here’s why...

What goes into choosing the right locatio

What goes into choosing the right location for a warehouse...GST Bill looks well on its way. The industry

GST Bill looks well on its way. The industry weighs in...weighs in...10

bor standards. Here’s why...20

n for a warehouse...46

30The true story of supply-chain education in India.

Vol. 5 — No.2 `100

Education

Special

Pg.38

weighs in...10

INDIA

ADVERSE REACTION: An inefficient cold-chain is killing children in India...10

GREEN LIGHT: How Ericsson India is reducing its supply-chain carbon footprint...18

Dr Ravi Prakash Mathur, Director, SCM -

Logistics, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., describes how the pharma giant manages

its supply-chain like no other Indian pharma company.

Page 36



The Right Prescription

July 2011 Vol. 4 — No.11 `100

INDIA





Method In Motion



` 100


VALUE OVER COST: An edited transcript of ASC Summit offers key learnings...26

THE FOOD CRISIS 54An ISB Prof. shows how to ensure food security.

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As fl ooding in Thailand disrupts supply chains in many industries, the event—along with Japan’s March earthquake and tsunami—is prompting many to consider aspects of supply chain risk that might have been previously overlooked, says a recent report in Business Insurance.

While many expect global sourcing to become an even larger factor for businesses going for-ward, recent events are prompting companies to consider the geographic concentrations of suppliers, the need for backup suppliers and re-engineering processes to accommodate backup components should supply chains be disrupted.

With an estimated 45 percent of the world’s hard-drive production located in Thailand and fl ooded plants affecting production by major manufacturers such as Seagate Technology Inc. and Western Digital Inc., some analysts say the disruption could affect PC production through the fi rst half of 2012.

The fl ooding also has had a major impact on the auto industry, where disruptions at Thai auto manufacturing plants and parts producers re-portedly is expected to result in lost production of 250,000 vehicles worldwide.

Many Japanese companies relocated produc-tion to facilities in Thailand after the March earthquake and tsunami. London-based law fi rm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain L.L.P. said the move to Thai facilities helped many Japanese compa-nies mitigate their losses after the Japan disaster. But many now face further losses as a result of the fl oods in Thailand.

“The problem for insurers who provide busi-ness interruption cover to Japanese manufactur-ers is that they have to cover the losses stemming from the Thai fl ooding because so many business-es moved some or all of their supply chain there,” Daniel Saville, legal director in the reinsurance and corporate insurance department of Reynolds Porter, said in a statement. “Moving production from Japan to Thailand was “Plan B.’ The ques-tion now is whether those businesses have a “Plan C,’” he said.

Bad logistics is often the cause for unhappiness and displeasure. It could be due to numerous

reasons from traffi c snarls, to delays in paper work or some little-known regulation that could cause delays in delivery. But to the receiver, it is bad logistics.

Often, when you have asked for something to be delivered at a pre-decided destination and especially if you are eagerly awaiting the delivery, nine out of ten times it will never arrive on the scheduled date. This happens so often each time I order some books/CDs/appliances. The service provider will tell you that he has made more than one trip and there was no one home. And then you get into an argument.

Is ensuring prompt delivery so tough? Don’t responsible people sitting in offi ces take stock of goods that have arrived and those that need to be delivered? Is the infrastructure in such doldrums? Surely, they are not short-staffed. Nor do people live in such remote areas (In the movie Il Postino, a make-shift postman delivers a letter with prompt regularity to his only customer who lives on the top of a hill) where they need to search out more deliveries within the area to justify their trip.

And God help you if your parcel happens to be a passport.

Your’s truly,Jayashree Mendes

Editor, LogisticsWeek

Disasters in Japan, Thailand highlight need for continuity plan

Bangkok

Interview In For TheLong HaulMs. Shagun Kapur Gogia, Director/Founder of Tuscan Ventures, has grand plans for the cold chain industry in India. PAGE 11

Varun Dhawan, VP-Taxation, Blue Dart Express Ltd., simplifi es the issues with GST that have boggled many in the logistics industry.

Firms Rethink Supply Chain Risks

PAGE 4

Gerry Alonso, senior VP of claims at Fac-tory Mutual Insurance Co., noted that the “slow developing” nature of the Thai catas-trophe makes it diffi cult to get a handle on the extent of losses. And, the duration of the fl ooding could exacerbate the losses.

“We’ve had some clients that have been able to procure divers and go in there, but that gives you an idea of what you have.” Mr. Alonso said. “The frustrating part from a claims perspective, you can’t assess loss-es until the water’s gone.”

William J. Montanez, director of risk management at Ace Hardware Corp. and a member of the board of the Risk & In-surance Management Society Inc., said his company hasn’t been affected by either ca-tastrophe, though it relies on overseas sup-pliers. Mr. Montanez said, “At the back end, we have to look at safeguarding and how we can make it less risky to do it.”

With the Thai fl oods raising awareness of the risk of geographical concentrations of suppliers, Linda Conrad, director of stra-tegic business risk management at Zurich Financial Services Ltd. in New York, said her company has been working with clients to

identify where suppliers and industries are concentrated. “I think this illustrates the need for better continuity plans, including backup supplier arrangements, diversify-ing the locations of suppliers and using dif-ferent backup suppliers than competitors.”

Ms. Conrad also said companies are starting to ask existing suppliers about their own continuity plans. “People are also starting to do a lot more scenario anal-ysis, including calculating the potential impact of having to re-engineer processes if alternative components or parts don’t match the specifi cations.”

In general, the recent supply chain dis-ruptions are leading many companies to embrace “that resiliency mindset of: Let’s try to think through some hypotheticals and plan for this when it costs us less than when we are in a crisis,” Ms. Conrad said.

“At the end of the day I think the onus that’s going to be on risk management and management in general is how can we get a preview of what the future might look like and how will we respond to it,” Mr. Montanez said. “That’s what ERM is all about.”

Editor’s NoteEnfant Terrible

Jayashree Mendes

`25logisticsweek.com

November 16–30, 2011

Car manufacturers across the world suff er delays as factories lie submerged.

Sour

ce: c

leve

land

.com

INDIA

RETAIL LACUNAE: Retail logistics managers rue lack of standardization....30BIGGER PICTURE: How supply-chain hurdles dent company bottom-line...14

Britannia’s Replenishment Manager, Raviraj Rodrigues (right) and National Distribution Manager Sanjay Mukherjee (left), manage the supply-chain of the FMCG major while clearing the roadblocks and ensuring seamless logistics. A sharp look. Page 20

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OLD ORDER: How auto cos manage service logistics for phased-out models...08THE FOREIGN HAND: How FDI in Retail would change India’s logistics...25

Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, AkzoNobel’s SCM head, is managing a 24x7 supply-chain. Here’s how he plans to accomplish it.

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COLOR OF INNOVATION

INDIA





Method In Motion



` 100


PRO-LIFE SCM: Amid all the din around green logistics, some practical wisdom...30

GET SET, GO 38The true story of supply-chain education in India.

October 2011 Vol. 5 — No.2 `100

Education

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CII SUMMIT: Highlights from arguably the biggest congregation of SCM chiefs...36

WALK IN THE PARK 44A detailed analysis of India’s logistics parks

December 2011 Vol. 5 — No.4 `100

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