Globalization: World Trade Group “rethinks” how business is done
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 4/15/2008 8:01:00 PM
If you ever find yourself wondering how executives in other companies—or even in other industries—cope with globalization, the skills shortage, or the other big issues of the day, you’re a prime candidate for membership in The World Trade Group (WTG).
Since 1999, this London-based organization has been sponsoring conferences that give forward-thinking manufacturing and supply chain executives a chance to share knowledge and network with like-minded peers. To make these gatherings as effective as possible, the WTG splits them according to functional area.
The next event, scheduled for May 13th through May 15th in Düsseldorf, Germany, is the 10th Annual European Supply Chain and Logistics Summit. The 4th European PLM Summit will take place June 23rd through June 25th in Toulouse, France. The group returns to Düsseldorf October 6th through October 9th for the 4th European Manufacturing Summit.
Oliver Sloane, Group Director, Manufacturing and Supply Chain Industries at WTG, says the supply chain summit will “explore issues like the increasingly global nature of business, and its effect on supply chains.”
Scheduled speakers will include Matthew Costello, senior VP corporate development at Sony Ericsson, who is based in Sweden, and Walter Clements, associate director of global security with Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.
Costello will detail how Sony Ericsson created an end-to-end supply chain, linking customers with the back end operations and finding ways of creating more robust connections with those customers. He also will also reveal how Sony Ericsson has developed innovative technology for conserving energy conservation and the work being done to meet global demand for sustainable business operations.
Clements will reveal the success behind P&G's latest risk assessment programs as well as the work its Loss Oversight Team has done in diffusing threats and crises along the supply chain.
In addition to these, and other insightful presentations, Summit attendees will be able to connect with peers in one-one-one networking sessions.
As Sloane points out, the value of the WTC summits is in the profile of the attendees: “They are senior executives with at least a national responsibility in their particular disciplines,” he says. “That means they are typically at the VP level or above.”
Attendance at a WTG summit also buys a membership into the WTG Alumni group, a growing online community of professionals who have attended and spoken at WTG events. This site also contains a wealth of valuable content, including reports from leading industry analysts firms.
Sloane says the alumni site is developing into a way making the WTG summits ongoing events and a continuous way of connecting with people “who are trying to shape their industries by rethinking how things are being done.”
