Freelance Consultant's Diary

The majority of packaging converters do not appear to be prepared to make the transition to e-commerce. This jump will require a reengineering of business processes. I tend to look at the packaging industry as a combination of three value blocks. We start with the raw material manufacturers, then we have the packaging companies or converters (who convert raw materials into cans, bottles, bags, etc.), and finally there are the end-users. There are others in the value chain such as distributors, designers, equipment manufacturers and packagers, but their role is not strategic to the value chain and can be safely grouped elsewhere for the purpose of this discussion. In looking at some of the recent developments, I have concluded that the strategic control of the value chain has shifted to the converters. They seem to be capturing the highest value in the chain. The raw material manufacturers typically serve more than one industry, and packaging happens to be one of them. Ac...

Let me talk about a typical end-user of packaging materials — a food company, we’ll call it Company X, that uses bottles, cans and films for packaging its range of products. Company X purchases packaging materials from several manufacturers and distributors. It employs an army of purchasing agents to accomplish this mammoth task, and this is not always seamless. Some of the jobs that the purchasing folks perform are requisitioning, research, qualification, receiving quotes, writing purchase orders, tracking supplier performance, certifying, negotiating and even fire-fighting (when goods do not show up as promised). Good news, bad news Well, here is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that a lot of these painful tasks can now be automated, transferred to other agencies, outsourced to the suppliers or eliminated altogether. The bad news is that our friends in the purchasing department would need to learn new skills. The Internet has empowered the department of...

While talking to industry executives during recent weeks, I have been shocked by the radical change in attitude insofar as the digitization of their business is concerned. Only a couple of months ago, I would hear complaints about how they were experiencing threats to their core business from online competitors and executives wanted to formulate strategies to protect their business. Now what I hear is “I told you so” attitude. While some of the remarks that industry executives make these days are arrogant, there are others who have just settled down in their comfort zone by rationalizing their fears – The Internet is only a fad, it is already starting to show signs of failure, and the threats to my business are over. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As Michael Dell puts it, if bad business models are implemented online, they do not become good businesses; they just become bad online businesses. Like all other bad businesses, these too will go out of business, event...

A recent study reveals that the packaging industry need not be discouraged by misleading indicators that predict the doom of the “new economy” but instead should continue to focus on being prepared for the long term. When I speak to packaging industry executives at companies of all sizes these days, I am surprised by the degree of confusion that is widely prevalent. I can appreciate their anxiety — there are signs that the economy may be slowing down (though a recession appears unlikely), the competitive dynamics have completely changed and new business models are emerging (and failing, in some cases). Since April, the stock market has further complicated the picture by sending several misleading messages to all of us. The media, which needs spicy stories all the time, has been delighted with the bloodbath on Wall Street. The same magazines and journals that were talking about nothing else but “dot com” companies and how they will change everything, are now similarly makin...

The advantages of connectivity, e-commerce and exploiting other tools for more effectively purchasing products or reducing supply chain inefficiencies are clearer to small businesses than to larger ones. The reason is simple: small packaging suppliers, in many cases, compete with some of the largest companies but do not have the same bargaining power when it comes to purchasing raw materials or being able to force suppliers to expedite a delivery when absolutely necessary. If they can do anything to get that extra penny out of their costs, they are in a more competitive position. The major problem facing small suppliers in our industry, however, is the lack of availability of suitable products that enable them to do that. As e-marketplaces are trying to build their businesses, their focus is on increasing the number of transactions. Since large companies typically conduct more business transactions, there is a greater tendency to design products for them and to pursue thei...