Challenge    While working for my previous employer, I had to look at the issues that our clients were facing in  the running of their business which were very diverse as we had clients ranging from pharmacy to  network carriers to technology firms. Most of the time the solution was arrived at by asking the  clients some key questions in order to ascertain their unarticulated needs which usually required us  to deep dive with them into their issues faced, be it on the customers end, the supply side or any  other areas. Taking the example of one such client, a retail firm, was facing difficulty in managing the  cost price increases they were facing from their suppliers. Being a global retail firm their suppliers  varied from local suppliers to international ones from the opposite end of the world. This posed the  problem of validating the correct price increases quoted by the suppliers and also difficulties for the  category managers going into negotiations with the suppliers as they had to put together suppliers  profiles before entering into new contracts or renegotiating the current terms.    Selection    This was a problem which involved many stakeholders (the category managers and the suppliers), so  in order to develop a solution, we needed to look at the problem from multiple lenses, understand  their position points and then start to build a criteria to abide by when removing ideas for solutions.  A mind map, one involving key stakeholders seemed like the best way to capture the needs of the  managers and then having them review the basic outline created, taking their inputs and  deliberating with them on their inputs over the course of a few days and creating a plan around it  worked well for us.    Application    Over the course of the project, I created a set of crucial items that were key to addressing the  problems faced. For instance : to keep up with global changes in the commodities, I decided to build  ash index which would encompass most commodities (sugar, flour, milk , etc) in order to simplify the  process of validation of price increases submitted by the suppliers in their products. Next was  holding a newsletter which would identify the major ingredients in a business unit (say groceries)  and showcasing the major threats (suppliers who might come for a price increases) and  opportunities (where prices had decreased and we could renegotiate terms with suppliers). After  compiling there in rudimentary forms I floated these along category managers who then came up  with some great additions to the initial mind map.    Insights    Taking the inputs from the category managers, some mind boggling things came to light. The  suppliers who were in contract basis would never review the price in between their contracts and  this at times decreased the margins heavily for the retail firms as those were going untracked. One  of the insights was outsourcing the commodity days collection as there were few portals which  collected index data globally. One managers suggested having rolling suppliers profiles which could  have regular updates and could salai be used to capture soft factors such as past relationship with  the suppliers in order to be fair and accommodating their challenges faced as we did for a cardboard  supplier when few of the supplier’s factories were shut down owing to new government regulations  passed in China. Another insight was to link the outsourced days to a dashboard which could give us  live updates for the commodity prices and also doing analysis on the data to identify trends and  brace for them beforehand.

Approach    Going forward, I feel it would be more fruitful if more people are included in the initial phase of  creating a mind map as it would broaden the problem definition and enable us to look at more  factors affecting the current issue. Having deliberations with different stakeholders over time can  yield valuable insights and interdependence between factors, issues or solutions to them. Also it  would be better to go slowly in this phase and take in as much inputs as possible without biases and  having a skeptic who would question our line of thinking to make it fool-proof or at least fitting the  description of “satisficing” when we arrive at a criteria.


Challenge While working for my previous employer , I had to look at the issues that our clients were facing in the running of their business which were very diverse as we had clients ranging from pharmacy to network carriers to technology firms . Most of the time the solution was arrived at by asking the clients some key questions in order to ascertain their unarticulated needs which usually required us to deep dive with them into their issues faced , be it on the customers end , the supply side or any other areas . Taking the example of one such client , a retail firm , was facing difficulty in managing the cost price increases they were facing from their suppliers . Being a global retail firm their suppliers varied from local suppliers to international ones from the opposite end of the world . This posed the problem of validating the correct price increases quoted by the suppliers and also difficulties for the category managers going into negotiations with the suppliers as they had to put together suppliers profiles before entering into new contracts or renegotiating the current terms . Selection This was a problem which involved many stakeholders ( the category managers and the suppliers ) , so in order to develop a solution , we needed to look at the problem from multiple lenses , understand their position points and then start to build a criteria to abide by when removing ideas for solutions . A mind map , one involving key stakeholders seemed like the best way to capture the needs of the managers and then having them review the basic outline created , taking their inputs and deliberating with them on their inputs over the course of a few days and creating a plan around it worked well for us . Application Over the course of the project , I created a set of crucial items that were key to addressing the problems faced . For instance : to keep up with global changes in the commodities , I decided to build ash index which would encompass most commodities ( sugar , flour , milk , etc ) in order to simplify the process of validation of price increases submitted by the suppliers in their products . Next was holding a newsletter which would identify the major ingredients in a business unit ( say groceries ) and showcasing the major threats ( suppliers who might come for a price increases ) and opportunities ( where prices had decreased and we could renegotiate terms with suppliers ) . After compiling there in rudimentary forms I floated these along category managers who then came up with some great additions to the initial mind map . Insights Taking the inputs from the category managers , some mind boggling things came to light . The suppliers who were in contract basis would never review the price in between their contracts and this at times decreased the margins heavily for the retail firms as those were going untracked . One of the insights was outsourcing the commodity days collection as there were few portals which collected index data globally . One managers suggested having rolling suppliers profiles which could have regular updates and could salai be used to capture soft factors such as past relationship with the suppliers in order to be fair and accommodating their challenges faced as we did for a cardboard supplier when few of the supplier ’s factories were shut down owing to new government regulations passed in China . Another insight was to link the outsourced days to a dashboard which could give us live updates for the commodity prices and also doing analysis on the data to identify trends and brace for them beforehand . Approach Going forward , I feel it would be more fruitful if more people are included in the initial phase of creating a mind map as it would broaden the problem definition and enable us to look at more factors affecting the current issue . Having deliberations with different stakeholders over time can yield valuable insights and interdependence between factors , issues or solutions to them . Also it would be better to go slowly in this phase and take in as much inputs as possible without biases and having a skeptic who would question our line of thinking to make it fool - proof or at least fitting the description of “ satisficing ” when we arrive at a criteria .