B2B2

B2B2? B2B2?  B2BB?

What are we talking about here?  A variation on the term Business-to-Business?  Business-to-Business-Squared?  Business-to-Big-Business?  Business-to-Busy-Business?  No, nothing that clever.

The title for this posting simply stands for Back-to-Business-Blogging.  My last business blog posting was in January 20, 2012.  January 20, 2012?  Oh my, that is practically six months!  That is an eternity in the world of blogging.

What happened?

Lot’s happened.  Good things happened and are happening.  This re-commitment to business blogging is testimony to that.  This blog was previously on the website of our sister company, Cadent Resources, Inc.  www.demandcaster.com.  I, Mark Gavoor, was part of that company founded by my good friend and business associate Ara Surenian.  Around the time of that last blog post, Ara and I talked and decided to split into two companies.  Ara would keep the company he founded and grew, Cadent Resources.  I would start my own company.  Cadent Resources would focus more on the wonderful DemandCaster software product.  Per the DemandCaster website:

DemandCaster is a comprehensive demand and supply planning, optimization, and replenishment software as a service that translates business data into optimal demand and supply plans that drive smarter, more effective sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes and improved financial performance.

The new company, my company, would focus more on consulting.  I was kind of excited to do this.  I loved being part of Cadent but there is something exciting about being able to created my own company from scratch.  Ara and I were talking about what I needed to do to get a domain name.   We went to GoDaddy and began to put in possible names.  We settled on CR Supply Chain Consulting and the domain name www.cr-supplychain.com.  The CR stands for Cadent Resources.  I was happy and proud, as a spin-off, to show the heritage of this fledgling company.  

Next was getting the company registered, creating a logo, and getting the website going.  My brother-in-law, ace tax attorney Jack Mardoian, helped me file for the soleproprietorship that this company is. We can always upgrade to an LLC or even an S-corp when and if we grow and add people.  That would be a wonderful problem.  Upon getting the necessary certificate from the State of Illinois, I open business accounts at my bank.

It was time to get a logo and order some business cards.  Choosing the color scheme for the new company was easy.  Being a Michigan Alumnus and kind of a live and die with the Wolverines football fan, I went with the maize and blue color scheme.  For the logo, I sketched out the histogram because I wanted to convey analytics, measurement, statistics, and continuous improvement.  I spent time searching the web, cutting, pasting, and trying to create my own logo.  I had some very rough drafts that captured the notion but were not refined enough.  It was time to call in a professional.  My daughter's brother-in-law, Andrew Kapamajian, is graduating with a degree in graphic design.  He agreed to help and the result is this logo you see at the top of this page.  He did a wonderful job.

One cannot have a business without a website can one?  Of course not.  I thought about doing it myself but given my recent experience with the logo, I thought professional assistance would be in order.  My friend and colleague Jolene Pratt recommended Bethany Vedder of Thin Line Design.  I gave Bethany a call and couldn't believe how reasonable her pricing was.  As I began working with her, I learned just how talented and easy to work with Bethany is.  She believes in clean designs without too many words on each page.  The result is the website you see about this blog... which is the the wordiest part of the website.  Bethany will next train me to update my own site.  Jolene has helped me with copy and minor edits already being a graduate of the Bethany School of Website Updating and Editing.  

The basics being in place, it is time to begin writing, posting blogs, and driving traffic to this website. This posting commences, or rather recommences that activity.  The goal is not to just drive traffic to the website but more so to drive traffic to the website because useful, engaging, and thought provoking blog postings.  

We are here to help.  Our approach is simply stated in the equation that is our value proposition:  

Metrics + Lean + Process = Sustainable Improvement 

• Metrics
  Do you have the right metrics to know where you are, where you are going, and if you have improved?
• Lean
  Is your process efficient and effective?  Have you eliminated all waste?
• Process
  All work is process.  What is your As-Is process?  What is your To-Be going to look like?  How will you get there?
• Sustainable Improvement
  Properly addressing the questions on the other side of the equation will yield permanent sustainable improvements.

This blog is dedicated to this core belief and value proposition.  This blog is providing thought, insight, and guidance in the primary focus of this consultancy:  Supply Chain Management.  We will discuss and explore industry trends.  We will continue to focus on sourcing strategies, planning at every level and branch of the Supply Chain, inventory management, and quality.  We will explore and discuss.  We will sometimes editorialize and if it is a hot topic, we might even throw in a little fire and brimstone.  

Beyond the above equation, we will also refer to our concept of Supply Chain Physics and the general notion of Statistical Thinking.  These both underlie our philosophy.  These themes will be recurrent in this blog.

The posting we like the best will turn into short YouTube videos.

It has been fun and exciting to get this all set up.  But, the real fun and excitment lies ahead.

Join us.  Let us know what you think.   If you like something, please comment on it or forward it via the standard social media options.  If you want to guest blog, writie us and let us know, we are always looking for new content and fresh perspecitves.

Comments

[bethany]

Thanks Mark, you are too kind! I've really enjoyed working with you, and you're obviously well on your way to learning site updating if you're blogging already :).