Perspectives on Sales & Operations Planning

Tough Economy Requires Better Planning

Warren Buffet famously said, “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”  The economic tide is certainly waning these days, and a lot of companies have found their Sales & Operations Planning processes to be completely inadequate in this unprecedented environment.

The past does not equal the future.  We cannot drive our car by looking only in the rearview mirror, and we cannot manage our companies by looking only at historical data.  Effective real-time collaboration with peers, partners, customers, and suppliers is the only way to provide meaningful demand forecast visibility with enough detail (product mix) and time (planning horizon) to enable the organization to react to rapidly changing conditions.

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”     Dwight D Eisenhower

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