Bricks Matter: The Role of Supply Chains in Building Market-Driven Differentiation

Lora Cecere is the founder of the research firm Supply Chain Insights, which is paving new directions in building thought-leading supply chain research. She is also the author of the enterprise software blog " Supply Chain Shaman ." The blog focuses on the use of enterprise applications to drive supply chain excellence. As an enterprise strategist, Lora focuses on the changing face of enterprise technologies. Her research is designed for the early adopter seeking first mover advantage. Current research topics include the digital consumer, supply chain sensing, demand shaping and revenue management, market-driven value networks, accelerating innovation through open design networks, the evolution of predictive analytics, emerging business intelligence solutions, and technologies to improve safe and secure product delivery. With over forty years of diverse supply chain experience, Lora spent nine years as an industry analyst with Gartner Group, AMR Research, and Altimeter Group. Prior to becoming a supply chain analyst she spent fifteen years as a leader in the building of supply chain software at Manugistics and Descartes Systems Group, and twenty years as a supply chain practitioner at Procter & Gamble, Kraft/General Foods, Clorox, and Dreyers Grand Ice Cream (now a division of Nestle). Charles W. Chase Jr. (Cary, NC) is the Business Enablement Manager, SAS Manufacturing & Supply Chain Global Practice, where he is the principal architect and strategist for delivering demand planning and forecasting solutions to improve SAS customers supply chain efficiencies. He is an expert in sales forecasting, market response modeling, econometrics, and supply chain management. Prior to joining SAS Chase was the Senior Vice President of Information Resources Inc.'s Sales Forecasting Practice. Chase is a former associate editor of the Journal of Business Forecasting. He is currently an active member of the Practitioner Advisory Board for Foresight: The International Journal of Applied Forecasting. He has authored one book and several articles in the area of sales forecasting, market response modeling.