The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

Last weekend, I went up to Chateau Montelena in the Napa Valley to pick up a case of Cabernet Sauvignon that I had purchased two years ago through their wine futures program.  Selling wine futures is something that we have seen in Europe for many years, but very few California wineries do it, so I felt pretty good about getting an outstanding red for two thirds of what I would pay at retail.  An added benefit of being in their futures club is that you get to taste wine out of the barrel two years before it is released, and before you need to make the next commitment to buy.  Effectively, you can look into the future, determine if you like what you taste, and then decide.

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Michael Morel is a Manufacturing Evangelist with over 30 years of experience in Manufacturing.

I went to a Larkmead Winery winemaker event last weekend.  The opportunity was to compare the 2006 release to the 2008 and understand the winemaker’s strategy when he made and blended each of these unique vintages.  The wine is great, pick some up if you can find it. But the discussion about French oak barrels versus American barrels, what country the yeast came from, how to ensure that the grape vines take full advantage of the local soil and environment, what steps in the process were outsourced and which were kept in house, and how this wine compares to wine from other parts of the world really got me thinking about how globalized this very small manufacturer of fine wine is.

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Michael Morel is a Manufacturing Evangelist with over 30 years of experience in Manufacturing.

Running with the big dogs, larger than life, boxing above your weight.  Bottom line, if you are trying to grow a small manufacturing company, you are going have to play the game better than the “big dogs”, but with a lot less resources.  When you think about potential break-through events in the life of your company, the game-changers that could put you on a path to the success that you dream about, what do they look like?  Maybe it’s a contract with Walmart, Best Buy, Carrefour, Metro AG, Tesco, or Macy’s.  And what do they ask for?  Deliver on time, with the right quantities, to the right store, at the best price.  Pretty easy to say, not so easy to do.  And if you can’t guarantee this, you will get another shot, in five years.

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