Business values transparency

In today s fragmented business value network, real-time transparency is a key imperative. Visibility is the ability to know exactly where things are at any time, or where they have been, and why. It is a capability that allows a company to achieve its business goals with event-based information relating to suppliers production rates, shipment lead times, retail sales, inventory, and customer s demand projections. Visibility can lower inventories, decrease production lead times, increase coordination, facilitate tracking, and decrease fulfillment time. It enables proactive operations, product tracking, on-time delivery, and alerts on product availability and shipments-status. 

The returns for the industry can be monitored (see Figs 1.1-1.3). The selling price of caustic soda is fairly transparent everywhere and chlorine pricing is transparent in the USA. Chlorine is less transparent outside the USA as most of the consumption is captive rather than merchant. The market for ethylene dichloride (EDC) is, however, transparent and chlorine values can be worked out from the selling price of the EDC and the input price for the ethylene. Knowledge of the chlorine value and the caustic value gives the value of the Electrochemical Unit or ECU. This provides a measure of the profitability of the business at any time. Convenient marker prices can be found in the US Gulf for both EDC and caustic as well as out of north-west Europe. 

The first step is to conduct a valuation of the current business plan, using multiple scenarios if possible. A continuous, internal company valuation is relatively easy to implement, and creates crucial transparency of the value creation potential of the current business plan and its drivers. 

To capture the business opportunities, the procurement team then needs to build a holistic business plan. The business plan mentality is critical, since it will provide the organization with a clear proposal and basis for the decision to allocate necessary resources to the planned efforts. Organizations that have pursued such an approach have created the prerequisites for performance transparency and service-oriented behavior. Possible outcomes depending on the needs of the company and the capabilities developed within procurement can range from a strong procurement network with its own profit and loss statement and balanced scorecard to the creation of a market-oriented profit center unit. The business plan should be focused primarily on value creation rather than cost savings, and should consist of two distinct parts ... 

Explaining these value-driver trees to employees helps them to understand how the individual s daily actions and performance have an immediate and direct influence on the company s (or the business units) profitability. Based on this transparency, specific targets for front-line and intermediate performance indicators can be agreed upon in yearly target contracts at all levels of the organization. 

There are three basic elements to entrepreneurship in chemical production (Fig. 12.6). The first - estabhshing entrepreneurial focus - means that performance targets have to be set which are driven by the capital markets in a participative process starting from the top - that is, at the business unit or divisional level -and which follow through a transparent value-driver tree in order to determine targets for the front line (see Section 12.2.1). The desired end product is a balanced scorecard for each operational unit with a clear Hnk to the overall profitability of the business unit... 

Transparency is fundamental to business. Investors need to be confident that reported profits are real, that executives will not use their positions to enrich themselves, and that accountability systems are in place to expose and punish abuses. Workers have to believe in a company s commitment to build value if they are to... 

The decision to produce the Shell Report was evidence of a greater commitment to openness and transparency - an acknowledgement of the show me world. That meant a willingness to engage with groups that had not traditionally been informed or involved in business decisions. That in turn would help ensure that the values of the company continued to be sensitive and responsive to public expectations. With time this would go a step further and begin to open up an involve me world. 

As stated in our Values and Principles, BASF is committed to an open dialog within the company, with its business partners and neighbors, and with society. For BASF, dialog means providing insights, accounting for our activities, and actively seeking debate with those who have other opinions. Transparency and openness are important instruments to establish trust. 

This alarming observation in terms of the survival of businesses and respect for the environment calls for a breakthrough transformation in doing business at all levels in the value chain in the direction of better balance, transparency, responsibility and collaboration between stakeholders. Vigorous step changes are needed to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, traffic... 

Consumers are increasingly aware, not only of their own impact on the environment, but also that of the products and businesses they use. As a result consumers are looking to your products to offer transparent value chains, high quality, harmless and environmentally safe credentials. 

Optical sensors can be used to separate plashes based on either color or transparency. This technique is used to separate bottles by color because clear PET has more value than colored PET. Developed from the coffee bean separators that are used to eliminate unripe green beans from the mix, these computer-controlled systems can rapidly differentiate between the various hues of the plastic regrind. The color of each piece of plastic is quickly established using a type of CCD camera and is either allowed to flow downward or is ejected with a puff of air into the reject or collection pile. Satake [77], for example, produces equipment that is specifically designed to separate plastics by color but their main business is still from the agricultural industry. Satake s ScanMaster IE, SE, and DE Optical Sorters are used to differentiate the colors of HDPE and PET materials in recycling operations. 

---