Art, science, and great people

Like the engine room hidden deep in the ship, most CEO’s, and certainly the general consumer, are largely unaware of operational management until something breaks. To Rolf Lohse Global, operational management is the balance, coordination and communication between the many inherently legitimate conflicts: operations and marketing, cost and delivery, efficiency vs. personalization, economy of scale, etc.. For example, marketing and operations almost always have fundamentally different perspectives for good reason. Even in the best teams, agenda and performance conflict is inherent. Rolf Lohse strives to balance and synergize the energy from these natural and healthy perspectives. Mission definition must become the primary goal, the balance and measurement of every decision.

Supply chain management

To us, especially in the competitive health, beauty, and spa industry, only intelligent and productive operational structures lay the foundation for long-term successful Supply Chain Management, which can make or break a company. Supply Chain Management is the set of operations and processes a company uses to obtain materials, transform them into finished products, and distribute these finished products to customers. Technology systems alone are only a small part of the answer.

Balanced sourcing

Rolf Lohse also strives for balance in what’s called a “Continuous Sourcing Cycle”—driving bottom-line improvement through intelligent purchasing. The approach produces wave after wave of savings by cycling through four distinct methods of extracting value from the supply base. Balanced Sourcing defines a philosophy of cooperative supplier relationships coexisting with a comparable commitment to competitive pricing. Focusing on the relationship alone is not not a wise basis for a long-term commitment. Equally damaging, a single-minded focus on competitive pricing also fails to capture the value of innovative solutions made possible from a more balanced model.

Balanced capabilties

At Rolf Lohse we believe that achieving the balance between price negotiation and partnership requires six organizational capabilities: modeling total cost; creating sourcing strategies; building and sustaining supplier relationships; integrating the supply web; leveraging supplier innovation; and evolving a global supply base.