This is one of the interviews I had with a Marketing director of a regional soap company in India. The most amazing journey in India is train journey and we can meet fantastic people in such journeys.
Aircraft and Airlines do not provide such service. I was interviewing one of the marketing directors in a leading regional soap company in South India.
The whole point of my argument was about supply chain management in his "geographical domain" and I am still sure that he understood the term "Supply chain". Most part of his day he has to use his cell phone to place the orders and supply them the necessary amount of goods. Though there are leading suppliers, customers who are wholesalers and shop keepers prefer his brand.
There is an order procurement system that places order through SMS, but customers prefer to call him and place those orders. The person's work is very hectic but he has not realized how much money the company can save through e-orders. The soap manufacturer is a local brand and big shots like Wipro, HLL and Ariel are their competitors, but according to him they are keeping them in bay and this little company are not heavily capitalized. They manufacture with amount with last year's turnover. Supply chain management of the marketing team is not sophisticated one and they have a plant that builds according to the order. Since most of the wholesalers believe that procurement may take 2-3 days, the company could meet the demand.
For litigations and other problems, the marketing team is supplied with a cell phone that record the call in the cell phone itself, this phone they use for the personal use and official purpose. The call is recorded as per the judgment of the marketing official. According to the executive there were problems faced due to this type of orders and the dispute is arbitrated through this recording of the conversations.
From the above points I came to conclusions that there is a serious need in the industry to manage the supply chain to cut the unwanted inventory cost and people need some person in the other end to take the orders and they are not ready to place it to a 'machine'
--- More to come
