FORVM499: Recent Episodes
Bill Young
True reports, imagined sketches and personal interviews with a common goal: to inspire insights into value creation (or destruction) in supply chains, transactions and behaviours. All borrowed from an unsettled career in sales, marketing, research targeting, product management, supply chains, procurement and consultancy. For obscure reasons, each episode lasts approximatelyn499 seconds Key words: eclectic; liberal; catholic; contrarian; provocative; inciteful (sic); diverse; cynical;
Personal development is far too important to leave to your employer. Most people are aware of that.
Fewer are aware that the most important area in is related to the skills and competencies that appear in job requirements, but is a much more subtle set of capabilities that are not, and never will be, on the training syllabus. We can call these societal skills.
Who knew?
Process Mining is the 'next, big thing'. You have to ask how out of touch executives can be. Procurement and supply folks have been using ERP systems to trace and analyze process activities for over quarter of a century.
The Economist article mentioned in this podcast episode, 'The real next big thing in business automation', even calls it 'a digital gold mine'.
It is sad how executives are unaware of the talents of their own organizations
Episode 3 was about social media companies' refusal to accept that they have massive influence over the content on their platforms. This episode asks why users of social media platforms cannot retain ownership of their own data and sell licences to use it.
Social media platforms escape most of the rules that apply to publishers. They claim, and we appear to accept, that they do not have control or influence over content; and consequently they should be regulated lightly, like a utility provider. Really, who believes that?
After more than a century of Taylorist thinking on how to organise companies for efficiency, isn't it time for a rebalance
The transcript for this podcast is at Season 02, Episode 02: De-Organisation (FORVM.online)
WARNING: Some listeners may find this podcast boring
There is too much Leadership. What we really need is Followership.
Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of FORVM499, an occasional podcast on business, politics and society. The first Season looked mainly at supply chains but, from this episode onwards, we'll be sharing the curious, thought-provoking and perhaps controversial on a wider range of topics.
I hope you enjoy it.
This is the third of three episodes (18-20) that address Managerialism, a western approach to business that created a class of managers locked into practices dating from early in the twentieth century. These practices, known as scientific management, are evident in many of the the things we blame on business in general, and on capitalism in particular.
This is the second of three episodes (18-20) that address Managerialism, a western approach to business that created a class of managers locked into practices dating from early in the twentieth century. These practices, known as scientific management, are evident in many of the the things we blame on business in general, and on capitalism in particular.
There is a transcript of this episode at: https://www.forvm.online/episode-19/
This is the first of three episodes (18-20) that address Managerialism, a western approach to business that created a class of managers locked into practices dating from early in the twentieth century. These practices, known as scientific management, are evident in many of the the things we blame on business in general, and on capitalism in particular.
There is a transcript of this episode at: https://www.forvm.online/episode-18/
The idea that diligent, hard work brings rewards is a good ethos - for the people who work for you. With experience, we learn differently. We find out that it's not what you do, it's the way that you do it; and now it has a word, Performativity. In this Episode of FORVM499, we'll explore some of the things that the HR function doesn't talk about.
There is a transcript here: https://www.forvm.online/forvm499-episode-17/
This started out as questions about Artificial Intelligence in business applications. Then it got side-tracked and, it must be confessed, moved beyond Value Chain matters, except in the most philosophical sense of the term.
Maybe you'll enjoy it nonetheless.
There is a transcript here: https://www.forvm.online/forvm499_episode_16/
This podcast is a companion to a Linkedin article. Both are about the difficulties that organisations face when they pretend to encourage innovation and change whilst clinging to, and prioritising, the goals of efficiency and reliability.
It may be controversial, and I include a warning about sexual images, but I don't need to worry because no-one will read or listen to either.
Episode Fourteen invokes Adam Smith and Charles Darwin, to put the case for Procurement; not just its relevance to commerce but its central role in the development of humanity. Never again let it be said that we undersell ourselves.
Episode 13 of FORVM499 takes on a story.
Semiconductor supply intrudes regularly into major news headlines as this or that industry is forced to slow down due a shortage of chips. Although briefly eclipsed by the Suez Canal blockage, it's back. This is a story that may be here for some time. No matter what industry you are in, you are certain to be talking about the impact of semiconductor supply.
Unfortunately, that is not all. The economic and geopolitical significance of chip production could affect everyone in ways we would rather not imagine.
If you would like FORVM499 to take on current supply chain stories, and to offer opinion and comment, please let me know. It would be a pleasure to invite experts and analysts to research these and put you on the inside track.
Procurement is about leverage. The more you have to spend, the better you can negotiate. It is an age-old truism; and is still the best of best practice. Right?
Wrong, of course
Any experienced negotiator will correct that myth; so a gentle reminder should not go amiss.
Please forgive this episode being light on provocative challenge and long on personal anecdote. I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.
When is Outsourcing non Sourcing?
The story in Episode Eleven may (or may not) be fictional but everyone can recognise it. Commonplace or not, like all stories, it needs to be created and told, and I am grateful to Dean Bennett for providing the inspiration for it from his wide experience.
Corporate stupidity is a dangerous phenomenon. It has always been with us and it isn't going away.
Mostly it is ignored. When that's impossible, heroic attempts are made to find rational excuses.
The evidence stares us in the face.
Organisations that have expensively recruited top talent can be dingbats crazy.
How?
Thinking about Business Purpose requires a level of emotional and cognitive intelligence beyond conventional straight-line thinking. So I am delighted that someone I much admire and am honoured to have as a friend, Theodore Milonas, has chosen it as his guest theme on FORVM499. Theo's career in Corporate Finance M&A, Consulting, Audit, Energy, Life Science is nothing short of impressive. However, in this episode, he bypasses his business credentials and begins his story with what really motivates him, a passion for equality and justice.
Every organisation has an ESG* policy. Few have a strategy or a plan.
Their thinking stops at the idea that 'doing the right thing' is good for reputation, risk-reduction, product awareness, staff motivation and other. It does not consider what happens when benevolence conflicts with the bottom line; nor addresses the question, how much generosity is enough.
So it is good that, in Episode Eight, the Head of Procurement and Supply raises this with the company's CEO and Chair
The transcript of this podcast can be read here.
* Environmental, Social and Governance
This extended episode is an interview with Dr Mike Fenn, on Systems Thinking.
At nearly four times longer than a regular FORVM499 episode, it is packed with information. I learned an enormous amount from Mike as we put this together and I hope that its insights are useful to many. Please forgive the serious tone: I promise that future episodes of FORVM499 will return to the frivolous and tendentious.
The organisation referenced by Mike is The Waters Center for Systems Thinking. Neither Mike nor I have any connections with it; and there is a wealth of free information from many sources for anyone who wants to take Systems Thinking a step further.
When buying standard products from a catalogue or equivalent, it's fairly easy to communicate requirements.
It is less easy when researching supply opportunities for uncommon or unique goods or services. Early misunderstandings get locked in; weeks of critical time are wasted; and an important relationship is under train before it even starts.
(And, yes; 'misunderstandings' are not always accidental...)
A talented lawyer told me once how to improve early communications and reduce the chances of this happening; and that is the subject of Episode Six.
Organisational HR models that focus on payroll staff are a century out of date. In many companies, the proportion of staff not on the payroll is approaching 50% in many, Important capabilities and corporate knowledge resides in external staff. Whether consultants, interims, contractors or employees of suppliers, they report to a different set of shareholders.
After a frenetic era of digital change, put yourself inside the head of a CIO: consider how your services can now be bought from the cloud with a click; and think what this means for your future.
The subject of this story is entirely fictitious - unless you suspect otherwise...
The move from Product Management to Procurement went well; perhaps a little too well. Beginner's luck can make you perilously over-confident.
Naive enthusiasm or a form of corruption: why do so many deals target the wrong thing?
The call centre anecdote is a true story; the only wonder being that is that it is so utterly commonplace and unremarkable.
If FORVM499 has a purpose, it is to entertain, inform and hopefully inspire (sometimes in a good way) a wonderful community of colleagues dedicated to value creation, supply chains and procurement. That is a modest way of describing just about everybody in the world of business; those who are not only curious about, but often bemused and occasionally mystified by, the behaviours of all around them.
If that's you, then let's travel together down this road. Wouldn't it be nice if FORVM499 could model itself on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a set of anecdotes illustrating the variety and strangeness of ordinary folks.
Why FORVM499, did you ask?
FORVM is the Latinised spelling of 'forum' a place to meet and exchange - and easier to grab as a domain name
499 is the number of seconds it takes light from the Sun to illuminate the Earth; long enough, don't you think, to respectively hold someone's attention ?