S&OP: What can we learn from Martin Luther King, Jr.?

martin luther king jr S&OP: What can we learn from Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Last week, we celebrated the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. MLK was a brilliant man with an amazing talent for delivering the spoken and written word. As I pondered several quotes from MLK, there was one that struck me as having a strong relevance within the business world.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

Now don’t get me wrong. The words of MLK go much deeper than business relationships. Still, I can’t help but think that the teachings of MLK can offer us some helpful insights into how we manage our businesses. Effective S&OP requires individuals from varied backgrounds, functional responsibilities and positions within the organization work together for the benefit of the overall organization.

All too often, companies struggle with functional silos, poor communication and a misalignment of effort. If you are a leader in your organization, collaboration and consensus building should be your goal. Be engaged in the S&OP process and encourage all participants to contribute their insights. A dictatorship is not S&OP. Likewise, a free-for-all democracy where each participant has an equal vote is not S&OP either. An effective process leverages bottom-up inputs from distributed resources as well as top-down market and business insights from company leaders.

MLK on leadership:
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”

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