We have been fortunate in that none of our family or close associates and friends that we know have gotten sick from COVID-19. As we sit at home attempting to construct some level of normalcy, I struggle with the magnificent failure of a system that is incapable of meeting the needs of its citizens. A system that has prioritized economics over public health. While the government, in record time, is pumping trillions of dollars into the economy to stop financial Armageddon, it has failed to put …Read More

In the next few weeks, companies with under 500 employees will start receiving payments from the Paycheck Protection Act and all companies will continue to make important decisions on how to structure themselves to deal with the current downturn and prepare themselves for the future (Here is one view of the future …Read More

Group50 sponsored this webinar which focuses on Recession Planning and Fine Tuning a company’s business plan in turbulent times. Subject matter experts in Finance, Leadership and Operations discussed best practices and the Do’s and Don’ts they learned during their corporate and consulting careers and multiple economic cycles with hundreds of companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies such as GE, Black & Decker, Deloitte, Underwriters Laboratories and …Read More

We are in a global recession according to global experts in a recent Forbes article. Don’t let this be your Kobayashi Maru – No Win Scenario. Every dollar not spent by consumers reduces downstream spending by 43% according to the current velocity of money statistics. No matter what business you are in, you are being impacted by this atypical recession, one that will likely rival the tech bubble of 2001 and the financial collapse of 2008. If you don’t agree, no need to read further, but can you really take that risk? …Read More

We are in a recession as declared by multiple well known business and financial leaders in a recent Forbes article. I completely agree and believe that this will parallel the financial crisis of 2009. Given that this atypical recession is here with unprecedented speed, Group50 has put together a Recession Planning Workshop that is designed to provide senior leaders and stakeholders with a full view of the inherent recession risk in a company.  The workshop has an elapsed time of 1-2 …Read More

The most successful way to look at unneeded business processes and their costs to the business is through a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) project. VSM provides a clear view of how various business processes are related to each other and assesses the need for those processes and how efficient they really are.

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There is a book; a book said to be so profound that any general or leader who implemented its teachings and strategies would be invincible.  The book was kept in the Forbidden City and shared only with the most elite. The book was written around 500 BC, it’s old, very old. Word of the magical book had spread through myth and conjecture over the centuries. Imagine …Read More

All of our clients are having OMNI channel discussions these days. Why? Because OMNI Channel is the front end of the supply chain and has a significant impact on supply chain optimization. These discussions are fraught with a lot of misunderstanding of what OMNI channel is and how it supports the company’s Market Effectiveness.  Googling OMNI Channel delivers …Read More

Since the inception of Sales Force in 1999, CRM has gained incredible popularity in just about every business.  Recent research indicates that over 90% of companies with over 11 employees use some kind of CRM. It is now used to document any customer related information you can think of and is part of a company’s Market Effectiveness.  The great news …Read More

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.  At Thanksgiving, we take the time to stand back and realize how many things we have to be thankful for.  Thanksgiving is about connecting those dots. …Read More

Companies have many different processes for strategic planning and strategic execution.  These processes are designed to move a company from its current state to a predefined future state. Irrespective of a company’s size, …Read More

Over the last 2 years, the hype around blockchain has cooled down significantly and IoT continues to penetrate everything we do. Our use case research has found over 400 significant business implementations in just about every industry and it is expected that the 12 billion IoT devices in 2020 will grow to 25 billion by 2025. The World Economic Form believes that Blockchain and IoT has the potential to reduce cost in global GDP by $3-5 trillion over the next 6 years. I believe that number is understated.

 So, why should you care? …Read More

Group50’s CEO, Jim Gitney, was recently asked by an executive about how he should manage the division he just took over as its president.  Jim told him “Manage it like you are going to sell it – maximize value creation”.   The executive gave a strange look and asked why that mattered. …Read More

The phrase “Internet of Things (IoT)” or “Internet of Everything (IoE)” and its application to manufacturing and distribution does not bring to mind a concrete set of images or business approach to most senior executives.  In fact, the opposite is true, …Read More

“The world is a supply chain, every company has one and its backbone is technology.”

We just finished supply chain optimization projects for two middle market CPG companies. In one of the projects, we created programs that will reduce inventory by $15M and annual operating costs by $2.5M (You can read the case study here). …Read More

• Reduce working capital by approximately $15M
• Lower yearly costs by nearly $2.5M
• Reduce lead times from forecast to delivery to 70-110 days putting them in the top quartile of their customer’s vendors.

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Companies today increasingly recognize Digital Technology and IT infrastructure as a strategic asset that provides companies with the ability to effectively compete in its’ marketplace – an observation underscored by the Nash KPMG 2017 CIO Survey finding that CIOs sit on 62% of executive boards as opposed to 38% in 2005.  While their relative importance varies slightly from year to year, the C-Suite charter for Digital Technology consistently features the following items: …Read More

Purchasing Best Practices were important to two supply chain optimization projects we recently completed for a University and a $400M manufacturer of consumer products. All companies purchase goods and services and have various organization structures, business processes and technology backbones for handling it.  In both projects, these were significantly different from each other. Irrespective …Read More

February 11, 2019 – (Upland, CA) – Group50, a privately-held, full-service supply chain consultancy founded in 2004 is pleased to recap its 2018 results and announce the addition of Lara Abrams to its team of executives.  …Read More

Most organizations do Leadership Succession Planning at some level of effectiveness. Very little has been written about the need for incorporating technology succession planning and while technology leadership is part of the standard succession planning model, little is done about succession planning and skills development for subject matter experts, their supporting teams and successive upgrades and new technologies. Teams …Read More

Most companies are struggling to identify the value of IoT (Internet of Things) and Blockchain in their business. That is partly due to the relationship between Strategy and IoT. While there is a need to have an IoT strategy, it needs to be a subset of the ultimate business strategy. IoT is an enabling technology that allows the business to rethink it strategy, how it goes to market and the product road (goods and services) that IoT enables.  As a result, …Read More

Blockchain and IoT technologies provide an opportunity to significantly reduce upstream and downstream costs in the Oil and Gas Industry. The World Economic Forum estimates that the digitization of the Oil and Gas industry could unlock $1.6T of value globally and realize $140B in productivity. While Blockchain and IoT won’t be …Read More

It was a month ago that I did a Blockchain and IoT workshop with over 65 Aviation executives at the IAFS Planning Summit in Denver.  In that workshop, I discussed Blockchain and IoT applications in the Aviation Industry.  I did an informal pole and found that the average understanding of Blockchain and IoT amongst executives is …Read More

Group50, Thinaër, Sweetbridge Alliance Network Form New Blockchain Working Group for Mid-Market Supply Chain Optimization and Liquidity

Combining solutions for blockchain data integration, secure IoT, and supply chain liquidity with industry best practices for blockchain platform delivery and implementation

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I was recently asked by an executive about how he should manage the division he just took over as its president. I told him to “Manage it like you are going to sell it – Optimize enterprise value and mitigate multiple risk”.  The executive gave a strange look and asked why that mattered.

Many leaders think that their only measure of success is the P&L–the amount of operating profit the company generated. Those who believe that are missing …Read More