S&OP: Getting to “The Story” Interpreting the numbers to help you make decisions

Here are two of the most frequent S&OP questions that I am asked:

From the S&OP team: How do we get senior management, especially our CEO, involved in the S&OP process?

From the CEO: What should my role be in the S&OP process?

It should be obvious that you need to answer the second question first. In this article, I will share my opinions on the CEO role and how you should approach the S&OP process. As CEO, you need to hold your team accountable and make the tie breaking decisions. To do this, you need to understand the numbers and then get past the numbers to “The Story”. I will shed some light on understanding the numbers and getting to “The Story”. Holding people accountable and making decisions is why you get to be CEO.

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