How are companies faring on the other side of the pandemic, and what are they doing to successfully take action with a long-term perspective?
In episode 2 of our podcast The Platform Rules: Digital Transformation for Product Companies, guest David Stephans, President of Rootstock, pinpoints current industry challenges and lays out clear solutions to stay ahead.
“It’s probably no surprise that some of the top priorities for the businesses [Rootstock] serves are focused around managing their supply chains—interestingly, not only the supply chain we all think about—like physical goods, physical products— but also the ‘supply chain of people.’”
“[Companies] have to connect the customer to the supply chain. And in today’s market, frankly, you have to do that digitally—not manually. That’s how the best of the best are weathering this current storm."
Propel CMO Dario Ambrosini, leading the conversation with Stephans, asks him to expand on why businesses should focus on the latter.
“Materials don’t produce themselves. Assembly lines don’t produce themselves. Supply chains don't operate themselves. It takes people to drive these processes.”
Like Propel, Rootstock is built on Salesforce and delivers manufacturing and supply chain solutions. As President, Stephans’ bird’s-eye perspective across a diverse breadth of companies allows him to discern why some of them have come out of the other side of the pandemic stronger than others.
“[Companies] have to connect the customer to the supply chain. And in today’s market, frankly, you have to do that digitally—not manually. That’s how the best of the best are weathering this current storm.
“The alternative is disconnected solutions, multiple data sets, expensive integrations that cost time and responsiveness. I think that’s where businesses suffer in serving their customers with non-optimal solutions.”
With so many still on the fence about “digital transformation,” Stephans punctuates his point with simple visual:
“It’s a little bit of the square peg in a round hole concept, right? Ultimately, can you make a square peg fit? Sure. You put it on a lathe and do extra work to whittle it down…. But why go through that effort? Why not get to something that fits more intuitively sooner?”
Click here to listen to the full episode, or hit play below.
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