SUNAYANSAURAV

OVERVIEW

It’s no longer ownership of capabilities that matters but rather a company’s ability to control and make the most of critical capabilities.

capability sourcing : how to source every single activity in the value chain

Outsourcing (sophisticated ) in core functions

Engineering, R&D, manufacturing & marketing

Forward-thinking companies

making their value chains more elastic

organizations more flexible

Migrating from a vertically integrated company to a specialized provider of a single function is not a winning strategy for everyone

Rigorously assess each of their functions, determine in which they have sufficient scale &differentiated skills or not.

Greater focus on capability sourcing can improve a company’s strategic position

Reducing costsStreamlining the organizationImproving qualityFinding more-qualified partners to provide critical functionsAllows companies to enhance the core capabilities

Drive competitive advantage in their industries.

The reason these efforts often fail to met up to expectations

Companies continue to make sourcing decisions on a piecemeal basis. No hard numbers against potential value of capability sourcingSlow to develop a comprehensive sourcing strategy that will keep them

competitive in a global economy

To realize the full potential of sourcing: companies must forget the old peripheral and tactical view make capability sourcing a core strategic function

The Changing Basis of Competitive Advantage

became the de facto standard in the computing industry through its skill in writing and

marketing software

transformed retailing through its proprietary approach to supply chain management and its

information-rich relationships with

established “value-managed relationships,” in which it consolidated component purchases with the few suppliers to sustain competitive

costs, high quality, and efficient delivery.

7-Eleven : Scenario Introduction

Market was getting very competitive, pressure on both revenue & margin7-Eleven needed to cut its operating costs substantially, expand the range of its

products and services, increase the freshness of food items.7-Eleven had always been vertically integrated, controlling most of the activities in

its value chain

Present Condition

launched a business review aimed at tightening operations, rebuilding competitive advantage, and perhaps divesting a few noncore businesses.

The core of the business, was merchandising skill—the pricing, positioning, and promotion of gasoline, ready-to-eat food, and sundries for consumers driving cars.

Company operated its own distribution network, delivered its own gasoline, made its own candy and ice. It even owned the cows that produced the milk it sold.

Managers were required to do lots of things other than merchandising—store maintenance, credit card processing, payroll, and IT systems management.

They realize that the company could be best-in-class in every one of those functions.

Capability Sourcing at 7-Eleven7-Eleven learn from the highly successful Japanese unit, whose keiretsu model of tight partnerships with suppliers was unique within.By relying on an extensive and carefully managed web of suppliers to carry out many day-to-day functions, the Japanese stores were able to

reduce their costs and enhance the quality of their operationsspurring rapid growthStrong profits.

Evaluated strategic functions such as product distribution, advertising, & procurement, identify outside partners with greater expertise &scale

If a partner could provide a capability more effectively than 7-Eleven could itself, then that capability became a candidate for outsourcing.

The way 7-Eleven has structured each partnership depends on how important each function is to the company’s competitive distinctiveness.

For routine capabilities (benefits administration & accounts payable) picks providers that can consistently fulfill cost &quality requirements. More strategic capabilities require more complex arrangements.

Gasoline retailing: important source of revenue for 7-Elevens. It outsources gasoline distribution to Citgo, it maintains proprietary control over gas pricing and promotion—activities that could differentiate 7-Elevens stores.Frito-Lay: distribute its products directly to the stores. 7-Eleven has been able to take advantage of the chip maker’s vast warehousing and transport system. 7-Eleven doesn’t allow Frito-Lay to make critical decisions about order quantities or shelf placement.7-Elevens mines its extensive data on local customer purchasing patterns to make those decisions on a store-by-store basis.IRI maintain and format detailed customer purchasing behavior data while keeping the data themselves proprietary. This gives 7-Eleven a picture of the mix of products its customers want in different locations without relying on outside decision makers like Frito-Lay for such informationDo-it-yourself approach to creating branded products was not of the superior scale, 7-Eleven worked with Hershey to develop an edible straw based on the candy maker’s popular Twizzler treat. In return, Hershey gave 7-Eleven the exclusive right to sell the straw for first 90 days on the market.When the data on beer sales showed that certain packaging options were more successful than others, 7-Eleven partnership with Anheuser-Busch to build sales in those categories. Anheuser-Busch helped 7-Eleven develop a product assortment & establish merchandising standards for a new display.

Capability Sourcing at 7-Eleven

The beer giant (Anheuser-Busch) (gave 7-Eleven first-look opportunities at new products. In return, 7-Eleven shares its customer information , together the two companies can develop innovative marketing programs, such as a cobranded NASCAR promotion targeting 7-Eleven’s core customers and a Major League Baseball promotion campaign.American Express supplies ATM functions, Western Union handles money wires, and Cash Works furnishes check cashing capabilities.EDS integrates the technical functions of the kiosks.7-Eleven share productivity gains from a services agreement with Hewlett-Packard.7-Elevens created a joint venture with prepared-foods distributor E.A. Sween: Combined Distribution Centers (CDC) is a direct-store delivery operation that supplies 7-Elevens with sandwiches and other fresh goods.

Capability Sourcing at 7-Eleven

Outcome7-Eleven cut its distribution costs from 15% of revenues to 10%When it owned its own distribution network, 7-Eleven delivered fresh goods to its stores only a couple of times a week. CDC now makes deliveries to stores once, and soon twice, a day. More frequent deliveries mean fresher products, which draw more customers into the stores.

Measure of success

Strategically vital set of capabilities—in-store merchandising, pricing, ordering, and Customer data analysisReduced its capital assets & overhead while streamlining its organization. Reduced head count 28% from 43,000 in 1991 to 31,000 in 2003 and flattened its organizational structure, cutting managerial levels in half from 12 to six.

A Framework for Capability Sourcing

Stop focusing on incremental cost improvement targets.

Step back and reevaluate your strategy and your capabilities.

Identify

component

•Identify the activities of your business that are the core of the core

•These are the activities that your company does better and cheaper than its rivals

Outsource

•In deciding what to outsource and what to keep inside, 7-Eleven considered two factors:

•1: whether a capability was proprietary

•2: whether it was common enough that outside suppliers could achieve scale or other advantages by supplying it to multiple companies.

Identify

capability

•Identify capabilities in which outside suppliers were building scale across their industry, or across several industries

•Common business processes or capabilities could pose an immediate or future threat to 7-Eleven’s cost position

What should you outsourced ?

How Strong are your capability ?

The Endgame: Dynamic Sourcing

A sourcing strategy needs to consider not only present circumstances but also future alternative scenarios

What trends will influence the sourcing options available for each key capability?

Is the supplier base growing rapidly, and are innovative new outsourcers emerging?

Are different regions of the world investing heavily in particular capabilities— like contract manufacturing or customer service—and will they offer greater cost or quality advantages in the future?

A company’s skill in quickly remolding its sourcing arrangements in response to market conditions and rivals’ moves may be its strongest competitive advantage.