A major buzz-word in society today is Transformation.  It comes in many varieties, Organizational Transformation, Personal Transformation, Digital Transformation, Strategic Transformation, etc.. But what does Transformation really mean. Does it mean doing things slightly better than today? Or potentially worse, expending significant time and effort to be slightly better tomorrow, but then quickly backslide to old practices. At HBSC, we believe that Transformation, in whatever form you consider, is truly about dramatically improving your business or personal life, and then never being the same again.  Transformation requires not only a whole new vision, strategy and action plan. It also requires the proper structures, tools, and acquired habits (cultural …

In the digital economy, acceleration is the new velocity. Technology has become an irrefutable foundation to our society’s daily existence and our human evolution remains increasingly tied to intelligent technologies. Abundant capital and massive rewards for innovation have fueled productivity acceleration and made market disruption the new norm.  This point is driven home by the fact that Fortune 500 companies are being replaced at a record rate.  Astoundingly, the average age of an S&P 500 company is under 20 years, down from 60 years in the 1950s.  This Digital Transformation trend is accelerating and the primary cause is technological advances being combined with new business model innovation.  We …

About every 5 years, a new technology paradigm is introduced and it changes everything.  It was true of Antibiotics, Airline Travel, the Internet, Mobility, Cloud Computing and most recently Machine Learning and AI.  Executives that are passionate about using technology to accelerate their productivity, growth and market positioning need to formalize a comprehensive AI Strategy and commit and communicate it widely throughout the organization.  We define AI Strategy as: The ability to drive productivity and innovation throughout the Enterprise through a combination of data analytics, advanced ML technology, process redesign and experimentation. The newly formed Enterprise AI Strategy needs to be designed to solve real-world problems at scale.  …

The evolution of Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) software has vastly improved the efficiency of today’s global manufacturing supply chains.  At the core, MRP systems are a collection of databases, interfaces, rules and information.  These software systems focus on optimizing the production planning and execution process.  This typically begins with customer or forecast demand (independent demand) for finished products.  This forecast demand then drives the detailed acquisition and production of all subassemblies and parts (also know as dependent demand). MRP II takes a more holistic view of the company-wide manufacturing environment.  It expands the focus beyond individual production planning to include both operational and financial planning as well as …