CGT Reveals Business & Technology Leadership Award Winners

In today's challenging business landscape, it is important for consumer goods companies to leverage core capabilities in supply chain, sales and marketing and innovation to maximize growth opportunities. Simply put, you won't succeed by just doing things the way they have been done in the past.

 

On October 26, 2010, at the 2010 Business & Technology Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla., CGT recognized nine deserving consumer goods companies with prestigious industry awards for effectively evolving their business and technology strategies to match new trends in the market.

 

The nomination process started in July, when entries in three award categories -- Supply Chain, Customer Management and SMB -- were collected from consumer goods executives, industry analysts and consultants, and technology providers. These nominations were then narrowed down by CGT's editorial staff based on multiple award criteria, including success realized since launch. A slimmer list of five finalists was then sent to CGT's Editorial and Research Advisory Boards, which elected one "Winner" and two "Outstanding Achievement" (a.k.a runner-up) recipients in each category.

 

So with the votes tallied, CGT proudly presents the 2010 Business & Technology Leadership Award winners:

 

 

This is consumer packaged goods capitalism with a conscience at its finest. Project 7 Inc. sells bottled water, gum, mints and t-shirts, and then donates more than 50 percent of its profits to help seven critical areas of need in the world: 1. House the Homeless 2. Feed the Hungry 3. Save the Earth 4. Help those in Need 5. Build the Future 6. Hope for Peace 7. Heal the Sick.Project 7 scored the water contract for Caribou Coffee in place of Coca-Cola and replaced Caribou's branded gum and mints with Project 7 products.Its next big goal is to "make above our $105,000 donation minimum and helping to continue partner with great nonprofits that are helping 'change the score' in the 7 areas of need," says Tyler Merrick, founder, Project 7 Inc.

 

Alice.com: Since its launch in June 2009, Alice.com has grown rapidly. The company's e-commerce platform allows CPG manufacturers to create branded storefronts that make it easy for the mainstream consumer to buy household goods online. Site traffic has doubled each month since launch and it now has more than two million unique visitors to the site.

 

The Mad Bomber Company: Trading in China since 1978, Mad Bomber is the original and world's largest Bomber hat manufacturer. Aside from promoting free enterprise in China, it switched to using recycled fabrics and products, organic cloth, vegetable or soy dyes and low impact accessories while still supplying cool new products to customers in 2010. The company also effective uses new technology to streamline and radically change customer service, Web site, cloud computing, social media, marketing, etc.

 

 

Working with Spring Wireless, the company implemented a fully mobile enterprise applications platform for more than 4,500 mobile users in Brazil and Belgium in field sales, field services and DSD. As a result, Anheuser-Busch InBev saw positive cash flow by the third month, and ROI was achieved in six months.

 

The Kellogg Company: Kellogg has excelled at implementing mobile retail solutions to improve the service levels and effectiveness of 2,000+ territory managers at retail. The efficiencies gained provide headquarters near "real time" visibility into orders and store conditions leveraging wireless and cell networks. The mobile platform will continuously evolve to meet the needs of the organization, including flexible surveys and promotional compliance tracking and management.

 

The Clorox Company: Clorox implemented a comprehensive Demand Signal Repository (DSR) called Trade Answers to support its demand-driven business strategy. Now, all information used to make fact-based business decisions is instantly available. Business benefits include: enabling Clorox to become demand driven by connecting demand creation drivers to demand fulfillment activities; improved product and category profitability; improved operational efficiency; and insight into competition dynamics. 

 

 

Early in 2008, improving S&OP was identified as a key priority for Newell Rubbermaid. Inventory growth had outpaced sales over the previous 3 years, inventory turns were down by 25 percent, forecast accuracy was well below best-in-class levels, and working capital as a percentage of sales ranked at the bottom of its peer group. In response, a global S&OP improvement initiative was launched. The initiative has delivered double-digit decreases in inventory, significant increases in forecast accuracy, higher inventory turns and various other benefits throughout the business. The improved S&OP process also helped cash flow, generating 30 percent more cash in 2009 for a total of $603M despite one of the most challenging business environments in a generation. Now entering its second major phase, the S&OP improvement initiative at Newell Rubbermaid will take advantage of the strong foundation built so far to enable rapid improvements in related areas such as forecasting, inventory optimization, and overall supply chain responsiveness.

The Procter & Gamble Company: The CPG giant deployed Terra Technology's Multi-Enterprise Demand Sensing to provide visibility into actual shifts in product movement and decrease forecast error. Now deployed in North America, Europe and Asia, the project increased forecast accuracy more than 16 percent over and above the 25 percent to 45 percent increase P&G experienced when the company implemented a Demand Sensing solution in 2008. The resulting increase in forecast accuracy has led to safety stock savings in the region of $0.9M to $1.4M.

 

Conair Corporation: Conair co-developed a compliance management system with Enterra Solutions, using new "learning rules" software, that allows it to identify in advance shipments to retail customers that are at "at risk" of not being compliant with shipping rules. This allows Conair to proactively avoid penalty charges and, if they are unavoidable, it then tracks all of the details necessary to dispute a penalty charge. It is now offered to the CPG industry as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution on a subscription basis.

 

Check out CGT's December issue, due out 12/18/2010, for more coverage of the 2010 Business & Technology Leadership Awards winners.

 

Starting in 2011 CGT and Terra Technology will be working with Dick Clark's alma mater, Texas A&M University, to launch a scholarship fund in his name. This is another way in which we can ensure that Dick's contribution to the industry continues to have a lasting impression on our future leaders. Please contact CGT Publisher Albert Guffanti at [email protected] for more information on how you can contribute.