LEADERSHIP
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18 months into the job , JDA Software ’ s CEO Girish Rishi is in a bullish yet reflective mood . Sitting in the Spectrum Lounge of the Park Plaza County Hall – a recently completed luxury hotel in located in London ’ s popular South Bank area – Rishi is in the midst of a whistle-stop European tour , which will be followed by a trip to Asia , meeting some of JDA ’ s 4,000 + customers , briefing staff and overseeing what feels like a rapid period of growth .
The company ’ s client portfolio reads like a ‘ who ’ s who ’ of the business world , featuring Nike , Unilever , Walt Disney , Mercedes Benz , Samsung , Macy ’ s and Sprint to name but a few . It ’ s Rishi who , ultimately , must meet and exceed their expectations – no easy task .
Following a decade as Senior Vice President at Motorola Solutions , followed by a close to two-year stint as Executive Vice President of security specialist Tyco International , Rishi took the JDA hotseat in January 2017 . An experienced head he may be , but he admits there were certain elements of the business that surprised him .
“ The market is moving faster than
I had anticipated , and our customers have been very quick to respond . It ’ s true that supply chains have been considered conservative areas of business that happen in the background – they are not to be messed around with ,” he says .
“ But that has changed dramatically ; we see companies willing to take really bold moves in a bid to disrupt their approaches to business . We hear the word disrupt a lot , but I think what we mean is to reconstruct . Companies are looking at their operations and considering how they would structure their supply chains if they were starting over .”
Rishi offers Michelin as a prime example of a business with the desire to ‘ re-layout ’ its supply chain . Whereas the company used to take a one-sizefits-all approach to its customers , it has separated its client base into four separate areas , so that it can serve its high-value clients in one silo , its winter customers in another , and so-on .
“ We are seeing this type of phenomenon all across the world ,” says Rishi , “ it ’ s not something that is limited to geography ,” Rishi adds .
AUGUST 2018