Today I’m joined by Anaplan, a company that builds connections and collaboration across organizational silos, allowing its platform to intelligently surface key insights, so businesses can make the right decisions, right now.
Anaplan is the only scenario planning and analysis platform designed to optimize decision-making in today’s complex business environment, so that enterprises can outpace their competition and the market.
Today Purush Ram, AVP of Integrated Business Applications for APAC at Anaplan, will be talking all about eliminating the latency tax for smarter, more connected retail and supply chain planning. We’ll be exploring the new trends in retail and the challenges they’re bringing with them; the financialization of supply chain and what the latency tax really means to you; why a unified data model is the foundation for AI success; and the actionable advice you can’t afford to miss.
Guest bio:
Purush brings over 25 years of global leadership experience driving business transformation, digital innovation, and operational excellence across retail, technology, and supply chain. Currently, as AVP of Integrated Business Applications, Purush leads product and GTM strategy for all applications while also leading retail and supply chain industry advisory.
IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
[03.25] The macro forces reshaping APAC supply chains, and why treating the region as a single supply chain overlooks the distinct market dynamics, risks and opportunities that shape each country.
“The consumer is now moving faster than the supply chain… The way customers can access a product or service has completely changed.”
[08.59] What the ‘latency tax’ means, the true cost it can impose on a business, and why it has become an increasingly significant challenge for retailers.
“Every retailer pays latency tax, but the hard part is that it never shows up as a line item on the P&L… In retail the margins are low… So the latency tax, and the cost implication it can have on your P&L, can sometimes be bigger than the profit you’re making in the entire category.”
[15.24] Where the latency tax typically hides across business functions, with a real-world example of how supply and demand vary across APAC markets, why these differences matter when adapting strategy, and why retailers should focus on three key cost drivers: markdowns, freight costs and lost sales.
“It’s about moving from retrospective decision-making to real-time decision-making.”
[22.21] Why bringing supply chain and finance together is critical to better planning decisions, bridging the gap between operational metrics such as units, cases, service levels and inventory, and financial outcomes such as revenue, margin and working capital. And how seeing and understanding these trade-offs together in real time enables faster, more informed decisions that deliver better business outcomes.
“Every operational decision is also a finance decision, we just haven’t been able to speak the same language.”
[29.41] Real-world examples of how the same supply chain decision can look very different through the lens of different business functions, and when you understand its actual impact on P&L, margin and working capital.
[34.27] Why high-quality underlying data, robust planning architecture and well-defined semantic layers are critical to unlocking real value from AI.
“AI does not fix messy data. It actually scales it… It’s garbage in, garbage out. And what AI does, in a bad data situation, is throw garbage out an incredible speed – and it sounds very convincing.”
[40.37] What becomes possible in a connected planning environment that simply isn’t achievable when business signals remain fragmented, and what connecting data, functions and decisions can unlock.
“When the signals are connected, you stop reading about disruption in a report and see the disruption coming, so you can doing something about it as it happens.”
[45.18] Where leaders should start when their planning processes are too slow or disconnected, and the practical steps they can take to identify the highest-value use cases, prioritise opportunities and move towards more synchronised, proactive planning.
[49.36] One simple, practical action leaders can take tomorrow to start reducing planning latency.
RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED:
Head over to Anaplan’s website now to find out more and discover how they could help you too. You can also connect with Anaplan and keep up to date with the latest over on LinkedIn or YouTube, or you can connect with Purush on LinkedIn.
If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more from Anaplan, listen to:
- 568: Operationalizing AI in Planning: Go From Experimentation to ROI, with Anaplan
- 514: Turn Strategic Planning Into Retail Profitability, with Anaplan
- 499: Navigating the EV Revolution, with Anaplan.
Check out our other podcasts HERE.
