{"id":103,"date":"2019-10-18T11:25:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T05:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/?p=103"},"modified":"2022-07-22T12:43:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T07:13:02","slug":"snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability\/","title":{"rendered":"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAll games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake, a ladder will compensate.\u201d \u2013 Salman Rushdie, Midnight\u2019s Children<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will be turning 34 in few days and my mood has been thankfully sombre. I have enough hair and reasons to think about my grey hair. And if that weren\u2019t enough, eyeing an additional margin, my amazing barber has been reminding me of it every single time we meet. No thanks mate! I prefer to sprinkle my life with some salt and pepper please!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think about it, Life has a funny way of sprinkling ginormous amounts of salt and pepper at you, every time you think you think the food is getting bland. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You spend 25% of your life fantasizing how unique <\/em>you are, and life sprinkles its salt and pepper over the remaining 25 % to strip you naked and demolish your ego to remind how same <\/em>you are from the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time when as a young and naive marketer, I misunderstood marketing to be a a job where you cook up cool taglines and design creative logos. And there was also a time when as a young, clueless consultant, I conflated my heavy-dose reading of eastern Vedanta Philosophy with Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was yet another horrible mistake I had committed when I was wet behind the ears in the consulting business. I thought \u201cstrategy\u201d was way more \u201ccool\u201d with its 2x2s and high-sounding platitudes than bureaucratic \u201coperations\u201d with boringly written SOP guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given my baggage, I have been a slow learner, especially when it comes to prioritizing \u201coperations\u201d over \u201cstrategy\u201d, and it has taken me a while to understand the power of operations and SOP documentation in maneuvering through the game of strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as I observe agribusiness leaders who deeply understand Traceability, I have understood this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the talk about strategy will remain nothing but a story, unless you don\u2019t convert it into reality through the rigor and discipline of operations \u2013 \u201ca powerful mix of deliberative, reactive and opportunistic planning, scheduling, resource allocation and risk management, in the fog of action\u201d (<\/em>to use Venkatesh Rao\u2019s definition of Operations)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It helps to approach Agri-Input Channel and Retailing Operations through a game metaphor. And nothing can be more powerful than our very own \u201cSnakes and Ladders\u201d. Is it any coincidence that this game originated from the business-savvy Jain community to teach its operational virtues of Karma and Moksha to its followers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s get to business. Allow me to give you a tour of the Snakes and Ladders of Traceability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every Agribusiness Leader sitting in the Head Quarters of Agri-input firms, aspiring to incorporate \u201cTraceability\u201d into his everyday channel and field operations, will have to understand one day that it is nothing more than a game of Snakes and Ladders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be a few things that will propel us forward in our strategic journey towards Traceability ( the ladders) and there will be a few things that will pull us down ( the snakes) from the goal of Traceability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s first look at the Ladders of Traceability, although the real challenges lie in the snakes, which will force us to respond, if not react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ladders of Traceability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Union Govt. Traceability Regulations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It is a great thing that Govt. is coming out with compliance norms so that hygiene standards are met at a bare minimum and organizations who understand the strategic nature of Traceability have even more compelling reasons to set the bar even higher. This last point is crucial, because with Government planning to provide traceability software by June 2020, it wouldn\u2019t take efforts to be \u201ccompliant\u201d, even though you may not be thinking strategically about Traceability and how it can really help you do business better than how you do currently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serialization and Aggregation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Serialization and Aggregation of Agri-Input products will remain a powerful leverage, if it can adopt the best practices prevalent in the Pharmaceutical industry and re-frame them to suit agribusiness operating conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t be surprised if you are wondering what leverage there could be in doing something as basic as Serialization and Aggregation. It\u2019s only when you understand the back-ward and forward integrations in agrochemical context, you start realizing the power of Serialization and Aggregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a neat illustration of the bigger picture, put together by Anil Kakkar, Excel Crop Care Ltd, when he presented the distribution patterns of Agrochemicals in India, at International Crop Science Conference. I am not going to explain this diagram to you. I will leave it to you to connect the dots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Working Capital Efficiency<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is an extremely tricky leverage because every agribusiness leader leveraging this, is making a hard trade-off between two mutually opposing forces a) Cost of Credit b) Maximize Availability of the product to farmers. I have explored this problem in greater depth, when I wrote about the Dharmasankata of Traceability.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dharmasankata<\/em> an Agribusiness Leader investing on \u201cTraceability systems\u201d faces is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am damned if I incorporate the data from Traceability systems in my business processes with the sole aim of protecting the Channel partner\u2019s best interests\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am damned if I incorporate the data from Traceability systems in my business processes with the sole aim of protecting the farmer\u2019s best interests\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do agribusiness leaders work towards maximizing working capital efficiency and address this dharmasankata through systems of Traceability?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Snakes of Traceability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bull-Whip Effect<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I presume that if you are reading this, you understand the origin and context of this term and I don\u2019t have to explain it you as a layman. You can read about its origin here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s incredible that we are living in 2019 and still there are no reliable demand-forecast mechanisms in the Indian market to capture the demand signals at agri-input retailing channel. Of course, Bull-Whip effect is one visible symptom of the problem, and if you start peeling the onion, you would notice that it is deeply enmeshed with the prevalent \u201cPump and Dump\u201d sales-strategies used by Agri-Input firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a blog that has now been deleted, Pran Arora once beautifully summarized the voice of the agri-input sales executive well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I see in front of me is lot of unsold material but too much pressure from management to get the payment from the trade , no-one wants to take back the material . Even my next year\u2019s targets are being determined by my this year\u2019s sales ,half of which is just pump-and-dump material on the directions of senior management\u201d he said ,almost sobbing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be impossible for me to do complete justice to unraveling Bull-Whip effect, and I will be writing in detail about this in the upcoming articles. For now, I will leave you with this diagram which clearly sums up why this is such a tough nut to crack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\ufeffSpurious Seeds and Pesticides<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have already written about this phenomenon in greater depth <\/a>and offered three reasons why this problem will never go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason-1: <\/strong>Channel doesn\u2019t yet have the adequate skin in the game yet to sell authentic agri-inputs to farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason-2: <\/strong>Technology can do its best to predict counterfeiting before the sale and report counter-feiting after the sale in the channel. However, no solution is fool-proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason-3<\/strong>:Even Digital Giants like Amazon, Alibaba haven\u2019t yet cracked the counterfeiting problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, you\u2019ve heard me loud and clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone tells you that you can install traceability software and your counterfeiting problems will vanish just like that, like a spell of magic, either he is lying or both of you are deluded. This problem is very complex, and at best, Traceability can only mitigate the problem, post-facto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you can imagine this Traceability game, with these snakes and ladders, you would know that although I have only put two snakes for now<\/strong> in the game, these are two extremely complex problems and require a lot of iteration in the market and channel to ensure that you minimize the consequences of these snake-bites and do your best to leverage the ladders available at your hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAll games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake, a ladder will compensate.\u201d \u2013 Salman Rushdie, Midnight\u2019s Children I will be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[9],"yoast_head":"\nSnakes and Ladders of Traceability - iConcept Software Services - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability - iConcept Software Services - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cAll games have morals; and the game of Snakes and Ladders captures, as no other activity can hope to do, the eternal truth that for every ladder you hope to climb, a snake is waiting just around the corner, and for every snake, a ladder will compensate.\u201d \u2013 Salman Rushdie, Midnight\u2019s Children I will be\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iConcept Software Services - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-18T05:55:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-22T07:13:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/pulse-snakes-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"812\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"iConcept Software Services - Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/pulse-snakes-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/pulse-snakes-1.jpg\",\"width\":812,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability\",\"name\":\"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability - iConcept Software Services - Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-18T05:55:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-22T07:13:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d3fa9a4e697259ba5d59133c672a5e2a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d3fa9a4e697259ba5d59133c672a5e2a\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/819df78c10de1eed99e71890c325aacd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/819df78c10de1eed99e71890c325aacd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability - iConcept Software Services - Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.conceptglobal.com\/blog\/snakes-and-ladders-of-traceability","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Snakes and Ladders of Traceability - iConcept Software Services - Blog","og_description":"\u201cAll games have morals; 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