Most MNCs have adopted a matrix management structure to support their operations in Asia Pacific. At an event hosted by IMA Asia, an MNC regional CEO remarked that matrix organisation has helped companies to make huge strides in corporate compliance, in supply chain network, and in business model. Digital technology also has enabled companies to have worldwide platforms for their service organisations that are much more effective when launched globally.
According to Gartner 2014 list of leading supply chains in Asia Pacific, it was encouraging to see companies had dramatically improved their position on the global ranking compared to last year, and that Samsung and Lenovo made the Top 25 Global Supply Chains list. Lenovo has scaled up a corporate analytics centre of excellence (COE), supporting its supply chain, sales and marketing, and business units that gets them up to top 2.
Technical operations relies on a complex, collaborative global language to design, analyse and improve the production of goods and services. Meanwhile, the rapid development of artificial intelligence and machine learning is ushering in a new era of transformation that will bring about game-changing approaches, models, processes and systems in technical operations management.
A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 50% of small businesses fail within the first four years of existence. One of the main reasons for this failure is poor implementation of technical operations. Without proper technical operations management, itโs safe to say that a company will struggle to achieve its goals and deadlines. A technical operations manager must anticipate the needs of the company according to the scalability of the business. Essentially, itโs about balancing technical and managerial knowledge. The technical operations manager should be prepared to advise on potential improvements and anticipate future needs.
Advances in technology have led to many benefits for businesses across all sectors and it is the job of the technical operations team to avail of these advantages and utilise technology the best way possible to benefit their company. A study by McKinsey Analytics titled โAnalytics Comes of Ageโ, suggests that supply chain management (including distribution), workplace management and operations are where advanced analytics including โbig dataโ are making the greatest contributions to revenue growth today. 83% of technical operations managers surveyed in these fields said that proper utilisation of โbig dataโ would have a positive effect on their business.