A GPS spirit to navigate on rough seas

In 2008, I coined the expression GPS when I was supporting the global implementation of an advanced S&OP in a famous multinational. The project became a true transformation engine in the company and had a huge success throughout the years and until now.

This is the story of its heroes who put their guts and their heart in this journey, which started as a sprint and became a marathon but still at the pace of a sprint.

If there was only one message to remember from this adventure, it would be "accomplishment will prove to be a journey, not a destination".

At the very beginning of this journey, the project tandem John and I, led by the project Director Cécile, realized that in spite of the glamorous "advanced" qualification, S&OP was still perceived as a Supply Chain project by the general managers supposed to lead S&OP in their Business Units. To illustrate the point, Cécile created the visual below which became immensely popular :

The rebranding of the project in GPS changed the perception People, because unlike S&OP which looks always a bit mysterious for non-initiates, anybody can imagine what a Business GPS could look like, without knowing the content.

In this article, I will NOT detail why the project has been a success story, which makes it still a way of life in the company 12 years after its beginnings. In a nutshell, I believe the secret of the success relied on the extreme customer centricity approach we took in each and every country. To illustrate it, John liked to say in the countries: "we are NOT coming with the red book of the Headquarters, "we come here to help you solve your unique Business problem with a Toolbox we will co-design with you. This looks like common sense, but in my experience, many big companies make the mistake to do the opposite. They design a global expensive and detailed playbook , and dream that when they come in the countries, People will fall in love with the beautiful playbook, and immediately apply it. It never happens, and for a simple reason. Before buying the WHO and the WHAT which are in the playbook, People always need an answer to WHY and HOW S&OP, and WHY and HOW are always related to the country specifics, and that's what makes the difference between Powerpoint S&OP, and S&OP as a way of life.

From Agile to Antifragile

In this article, I will only emphasize the importance of the GPS spirit in the success of the project, which actually since day 1 was seen as a Transformation, and explain WHY a narrative is a key success factor for projects in uncertain times.

It is remarkable to observe that during the journey, the project started in Agile mode, and through the difficulties, moved from Project to Transformation, becoming stronger and stronger challenge after challenge, i.e. the exact definition of Antifragility, which can be seen as beyond Resilience. In a future article, I will detail Why and How Leadership should move from Agile to Antifragile mode, in highly uncertain times.

Today, almost everybody has accepted that our world has become VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous), but it does not mean we are happy with it. Some people like a VUCA environment and thrive in it, other people don't, and are looking for stability and safety, but TOGETHER we are looking for some sense making in this chaotic context. A narrative is a powerful way to give meaning in an environment which appears meaningless.

Narratives are not new news. They have always existed since the beginnings of Humanity. But in Business, narratives used to be books of recipes, full of detailed procedures absolutely irrelevant in a VUCA world where operational decisions must be taken on the battlefield and not in the headquarters.

In a VUCA world, narratives must be based on principles NOT recipes. And the best way to learn these principles before real life experience which can be bitter, is to play Business simulations like Value Race. In the Company, Value Race was used to train general managers to operations, and straight after this executive training, the S&OP project rebranded GPS was launched.

The narrative spread like a virus because it perfectly fitted the entrepreneurial culture at that time. Like the GPS of a car, or a boat, a Business GPS relies on what we called the 4 A principles: Anticipation, Alignment, Agility, and Accuracy. The power of the 4 A was reinforced by 4 Tools, each corresponding to a principle : The Rainbow for Anticipation, the Lean Dashboard for Alignment, the Radar for Agility, and the 6BOX for Accuracy.

It is remarkable to observe that 12 years after, these 4 tools are the same, which demonstrates their endurance, and more importantly, demonstrates that advanced S&OP, some people call IBP, does not need to be rocket science. In fact it is just the opposite, the success of an advanced S&OP or IBP, relies on the simplicity of its approach. The magic of GPS project was clearly the right combination between extreme customer centricity to address Business Units unique stakes and issues, and using the 4 standard tools and obviously 5 steps process, which gave a lot of freedom within a framework, i.e. exactly what our internal customers were asking for : practical solutions to their problems as opposed to a more patronizing approach.

"When the sea was calm, all ships alike showed mastership in floating" Shakespeare

The power of a narrative can be measured by its endurance. When Mark took over from John in the Leadership of the GPS project, Business conditions had dramatically changed. Consequently, it was a moment of truth for GPS. Was it another management fad, or something more serious ? With Mark, we introduced the metaphor of GPS to navigate on rough seas. In practical terms, it meant: change nothing in the toolkit, and reinforce the behavioural aspects needed in rough seas environment. As an example, in rough seas environments, extreme attention to details become a must. And at the same time, extreme care for People becomes even more important. During a crisis, like the COVID crisis, many Leaders with a super-hero attitude, make the mistake to focus on the details of the tasks to be done, and completely forget to focus at the same time on the morale of their troops. Watch the movie "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe to visualize what extreme attention to ALL details (both technical and human ) in rough seas really means.

Masters and Pretenders

When Laurent succeeded to Mark in the Leadership of the GPS Transformation, he was confronted to a new challenge. GPS was now well embedded in the culture of the company, but with various successes in terms of Business results in the different Business units. This led to the "GPS reloaded" initiative, and later on "GPS Excellence" when Marina became the new GPS Leader. Tineke succeeded to Marina and kept on sharpening the saw of GPS Excellence, with a special focus on Demand and automation of the process itself.

The key learning of these 2 phases of the Transformation is that you need to measure at the same time S&OP/GPS Performance and Business Performance, bearing in mind that the ultimate purpose is to use S&OP/GPS to execute the Strategy of the company, according to the graph below

The morality of this Story is that S&OP/GPS is a never ending journey, and even when you have reached Masters Level, like any champion, you are now confronted to the most difficult challenge : to stay at this level on the long run.

The morality of this morality is that this story could only happen, because all these GPS Leaders, Cécile, John, Mark, Laurent, Marina and Tineke, led this transformation with passion and competence, strongly supported by their sponsors who demonstrated with consistency their commitment to GPS by putting a clear priority on it, and consequently allocating the necessary resources to make it a success.

As the legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton declared : by endurance we conquer. Nothing is more true regarding the GPS spirit and its Dream Team of Leaders.