| Best Practices |
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The
Impact of Forecasting Improvement on Return on Shareholder Value
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5th Annual World Class Sales and Forecasting Management Conference, |
| “Only by combining exploration and communication can we achieve true understanding” | ||
| Craig Burkhead, Chief Scientist, Steelwedge Software | ||
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This is the first in a series of Steelwedge Software executive interview articles that will appear in Perspectives on Enterprise Planning Newsletter from time to time. For this issue we talked with Steelwedge Chief Scientist Craig Burkhead, who you will see is a very interesting guy. The Editors.
PEP: Why did you join Steelwedge? CB: My original background was in scientific computing, primarily the physical sciences. While working on my undergraduate degrees at Virginia Tech in 1987, I was approached by Dr. Tom Mentzer, an internationally respected professor in marketing and logistics, who was interested in building a small company to explore the business application and extension of several ideas of his in collaborative forecasting. We worked together for almost fifteen years, choosing disparate industry segments to validate and improve his models. In 2001, we were approached by Glen Margolis (Steelwedge EVP Founder), who wished to incorporate this intellectual property into an extensible framework suited to the needs of an enterprise environment. We worked together with a world-class engineering team to build the current Enterprise Planning and Performance Management (EPPM) system, which is our current flagship product. PEP: What makes you look forward to coming to work every day? CB: It’s a creative environment, and I get to work with a talented group developing and marketing enterprise software solutions that help large companies become more efficient in planning and forecasting. We have the opportunity to be a significant player in changing and improving the way companies operate. We’re not just creating software solutions, but really a work flow process and an operating philosophy. PEP: How does SW make the world a better place? CB: In all activities, I think efficiency generally makes us better. If we need to go to a store, we feel more responsible if we can make two or three stops in the same trip. It’s a better use of our time and resources, it’s less wasteful. So I do think a more efficient world is a better place. Too many companies are focused on what to produce, rather than really understanding demand or eliminating of waste, so they might end up with costly, obsolete inventory or unfilled orders. Efficiency is elegant. PEP: Where will Enterprise Planning be five years from now? CB: Enterprise planning may be at a tipping point. Only in the last several years has the convergence of computing capability and enterprise infrastructure maturity reached the point that leading edge applications can truly take advantage of the wealth of data available, and present information that provides clarity into the decision process. For decades there has been the traditional struggle between centralized control and decentralized collaboration. The PC by definition enables and empowers the individual. By leveraging the most important quantitative business tool—Enterprise Enabled Excel—with advanced applications like Steelwedge EPPM corporate planners in sales, operations, product management and finance can truly connect and collaborate. So I see Steelwedge playing a major role helping companies to get greater value from ERP, SCM, CRM, SFA systems. PEP: Whom do you admire? Why? CB: My heroes have always been those individuals who were willing to pursue their visions and push the boundaries of human thought space, irrespective of the personal cost. The individual I have always held in highest regard is the Croatian scientist Nikola Tesla, for whom my wife and I named our feathered child (aka companion parrot), Tesla. He was an incredible scientist and engineer, responsible for more fundamental patents based upon personal work than anyone else in the twentieth century. Another hero is Alan Turing, a man of brilliance in cryptography, mathematics and cognitive science. Dr. Turing introduced remarkable new concepts on the definitions of ‘thought’ and ‘mind.’ A literary hero would be Edgar Poe, whose poems and stories created new literary forms. His ability to capture in short stories works of enormous depth and complexity and connection to the human soul. PEP: Seen any good movies lately? CB: The SF Bay area has such a wonderful collection of historic theatres. A few weeks ago I saw one of my favorite films ‘Brazil’, by Terry Gilliam, in the Castro, one of my favorite bay area theaters. The Castro, for those who aren’t familiar, is a turn-of the century Art Deco renovated stage, complete with a magnificent pipe organ, which played on stage between showings. PEP: Who's your favorite author? Recent book? CB: For prose, a quick list would need to include Edgar Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Helprin, Samuel Delany, Thomas Pynchon, Italo Calvino and Kurt Vonnegut. Probably ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ would be my favorite book. All authors with strong elements of surrealism. I am currently reading ‘The Blind Assassin,’ by Margaret Atwood. I was familiar with her more popular works, and decided to explore, read ‘Oryx and Crake,’ became captivated and am now working through her anthology. PEP: What do you do when you're not at SW? After work? On weekends? CB: I recently purchased a small 1967 sailboat (a good year), which I am in the process of renovating. For a fiberglass boat this means ‘sanding’, ‘sanding’ and yet more ‘sanding’. I appear to be determined to see how much money can be spent on a small sailboat. Currently, there doesn’t appear to be a limit. When taking a break from sanding and in San Francisco, I spend most weekend evenings in the city, in particular I enjoy eating at ethnic restaurants and enjoying plays and performances at small, local theaters. When home in West Palm Beach. FL, my time is allocated to yard work, antique hunting and preparing elaborate meals. PEP: How would you like to be remembered? CB: I’m not particularly interested in being remembered, as much as I would like my contributions to continue to have impact. Through my wife’s work (she’s an avian veterinarian), I have been involved in a number of avicultural philanthropic organizations, involved in parrot conservation, captive propagation, and welfare concerns. I hope that of all my endeavors, these efforts will have the longest impact. I treasure relationships, both personal and conceptual. To me, it’s only through a combination of exploration and communication that one obtains true understanding. The connections one makes through life, through friends and work, are the ephemeral threads from which we weave our lives. |
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