LUIZ ALBERTO BARBERINI
External Relationship Operations Manager LatAm – Bayer SA, Brazil

Abstract

Supply Chain Management (SCM) addresses effective and efficient flows of information, resources, and products to serve customers, from raw material sources to the end consumer. Managing these end-to-end processes requires collaboration between all parts of the network, including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers – while cost management must be a recurring theme. In this scenario, the complex logistics for temperature-controlled goods is a key challenge in continental sized countries like Brazil and in order to get the most reliable compliant cost-competitive scenario, it is critical to rely on companies that delivers what they promise and the best way to monitor its performance is through a clear, transparent and trustful relationship, discussed in detail in text below.

There is growing recognition that companies no longer compete as individual entities, but rather as part of a broader network (1, 2). The strength of these networks is largely determined by the quality of relationships that connect companies and the business processes that sustain them. While the resource-based view of the firm attributes competitive advantage to the ownership, control of resources, and the unique capabilities of a single firm, the relational view extends this theory, considering interfirm relationships as an important unit of analysis for understanding differential performance in business and according to this relational view, rents are created when companies combine, exchange or invest in unique assets, sharing complementary knowledge, routines, resources and capabilities, as well as effective governance mechanisms. Implementing cross-functional and cross-company business processes provides managers with responsibilities that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and skills across internal and external organizational boundaries, and this is very special in logistics, where the core business is radically different from the one a traditional company uses to handl ...