Joe Berry Australian Retail Industry Executive Award Open for 2014

If you would like to join Graham Fairbairn on the growing list of winners of the prestigious Joe Berry Australian Retail Industry Executive Award the 2014 title is up for the taking.

Again, in 2014, the Award is offering the winning entrant the opportunity of a lifetime. Entrants are asked to submit an 1800 word essay, accompanied by a 12-slide PowerPoint slideshow, proving how industry savvy they are. Judges will be looking for punchy and informative essays that are a head above the rest.

From the selected finalists, an overall winner will be chosen for the Joe Berry Australian Retail Industry Executive Award 2014. The winner receives an escorted tour of the major world retail markets including Paris, London, New York, Milan and Hong Kong or the option of supported tertiary education. The winner will also receive a guest speaker role at the annual ECRA Conference, the 2014 Joe Berry Award ceremony and Retail World Magazine will publish their winning essay. 

 Click here for further information.

Food and Grocery Executive Program

The Food and Grocery Executive Program (FGEP) is a fully residential business school style executive program with a unique blend of skill development, industry learning and networking led by world class teachers alongside senior industry leaders. The format contains a mix of interactive lectures, syndicate groups (which are rotated during the week), case studies, group assignment workshops and industry discussion sessions. You will examine a range of management and industry issues from the varying perspectives across the supply chain and develop winning strategies for today's global FMCG industry. The course is intensive and challenging but also very social and a lot of fun.

Middle to senior level managers and emerging leaders from all segments and throughout the supply chain of the food and grocery industry in Australia and New Zealand. We take no more than 36 participants which ensures you have plenty of opportunity to develop strong relationships with other delegates and faculty throughout the week. In recent years the class has typically comprised one-third retailers and wholesalers and two-thirds manufacturers and suppliers.

The dates for 2014 are 21-26 September. Click here to register.

ECRA Working Group - Order to Receipt Excellence

Work is being undertaken by a standing networking group to promote industry approaches to developing solutions against B2B issues previously highlighted including further opportunities to drive business systems standards in the industry. 

The group whose members include retailers, manufacturers/suppliers and GS1 Australia meet four times annually against a work plan which for 2013-14 included: 

• Developing an industry approach to enabling receipt of multiple batch/use-by codes on consolidated full pallets of a single SKU.
• Undertake review of opportunities to optimise the use of Advance Shipment Notices (ASN’s) and how to overcome the current operational issues being incurred.
• Review the underlying issues behind the poor levels of master data alignment across manufacturers and retailers and drive improvement. 

Contact the ECRA Secretariat for more information.

Participate in the 4th Biennial AFGC Supply Chain Survey 2014

Take the opportunity to make your voice heard and benchmark against your fellow AFGC members!

The AFGC Supply Chain Survey was first undertaken in 2008, then again in 2010 and 2012. It is our intention to continue to administer the survey of AFGC Full Member companies who trade with major retailers every two years to facilitate up to date information for members and to track key trends our industry faces in the supply chain function.  The survey will again be an on-line survey in 2014 for completion by the end of March. 

All (and only) those AFGC Full Member companies who participate in the survey will be provided a copy of the full report which will prove invaluable as a guide to current industry perspectives, as well as for benchmarking and comparing your business’ position to the broader industry against key issues and metrics. 

Many AFGC Full Members have enjoyed the benefits of getting a clear snap-shot of what is happening amongst their peers in the industry by completing the survey and receiving the report in past years. In 2014 the AFGC is encouraging all Full Members to participate and in doing so to add even more value to the initiative. 

The AFGC has issued the survey directly to (only) the most senior Supply Chain contact we have on record for each Full Member company and asked that the survey be completed by 31 March, with the report then to be released after analysis has been completed. 

For more information please contact John Cawley at the AFGC if you have any queries in relation to this request and/or the survey question, or experience any technical difficulties in undertaking the on-line survey.

AFGC Investigates Supply Chain Talent Attraction and Retention

With an objective to investigate and develop strategies as to how the industry can better attract and retain high quality, talented individuals in the supply chain function, the AFGC Supply Chain Committee agreed to undertake a study to better understand issues in attracting and retaining talented personnel to the supply chain function within the FMCG industry. 

An emerging issue for AFGC member companies is the increased difficulty attracting and maintaining talent within the supply chain function. This is becoming an important issue as other industries are enticing new graduates away from FMCG, and at the same time AFGC member companies face aging workforces. 

The Committee has appointed Invoke Performance as project partner and has undertaken the first phase of work to understand and validate the specific areas of concerns. Focus has been on identifying key roles where attraction and retention is both critical and problematic across. 

Phase 2 will involve a broad range of information gathering across AFGC members’ employees, potential candidates, employment and education experts and other key stakeholders. 

AFGC members are urged to participate in this important initiative if and when contacted by Invoke Performance. Members’ perspective and insight will prove invaluable to the study.