CEO Today Management Consulting Awards 2021

USA

CEO TODAY MANAGEMENT CONSULTING AWARDS 2021

Steven Bowen Founder and CEO of Maine Pointe

Contact Details Steven Bowen W: www.mainepointe.com

AN INTERVIEWWITH STEVEN BOWEN What led you to start Maine Pointe?

ABOUT STEVEN J BOWEN Steven J Bowen is founder and CEO of Maine Pointe, a global supply chain and operations consultancy specializing in driving EBITDA and cash improvements across procurement, operations, logistics and data analytics to enable growth. Steve has more than 30 years of P&L experience, leading turnarounds for high-growth businesses and Fortune 1000 companies and advising CEOs and PE partners. Company leaders worldwide recognize him for\ his ability to rapidly transform an organizationʼs vision and mission and deliver exceptional, sustainable and measurable performance. Maine Pointeʼs global clientele spans multiple industries, including aviation aerospace and defense, CPG and retail, private equity, energy, chemicals and industrial manufacturing & services. Steve is a published author who is frequently quoted in industry publications and is a sought- after guest on podcasts and other industry broadcasts. He has published articles and insights on supply chain collaboration and integration for leading business publications. ABOUTMAINE POINTE Maine Pointe, a member of the SGS Group, is a global supply chain and operations consulting firm trusted by many chief executives and private equity firms to drive compelling economic returns for their companies. We achieve this by delivering accelerated, sustainable improvements in EBITDA, cash and growth across procurement, logistics, operations and data analytics. Our hands-on implementation experts work with executives and their teams to rapidly break through functional silos and transform the plan-buy- make-move-fulfill digital supply chain to deliver the greatest value to customers and stakeholders at the lowest cost and risk to business. We call this Total Value Optimization (TVO)™. ABOUT SGS SGS is the worldʼs leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 89,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.

I founded Maine Pointe as a result of the simple observation no firm at the time offered an implementation solution for the true end-to-end supply chain and operations of a company. Senior executives and private equity firms needed hands-on specialists to help them drive measurable supply chain and operational improvements, fast. The purpose of the company was (and remains to this day) to deliver compelling economic returns to our clients and our people through accelerated performance improvements in EBITDA, cash and growth. To achieve this goal, we invested in building a results- driven implementation firm underpinned with a culture and set of values clients can trust. How did you attract your first customers? Old fashion cold calling and networking led us to an opportunity to work with our first client on demand creation and management in their business. Over the next decade, we hired highly experienced industry and subject matter experts who were able to take our unique Total Value Optimization (TVO)™ analysis and implementation methodology and deliver accelerated, measurable results for our clients. Built on a solid foundation of our values, we pursued our vision of becoming the worldʼs most sought-after supply chain and operations consulting firm by making a clear ROI business case to clients, supported by a unique 100% guarantee of engagement fees based on annualized savings. What would you say have been your main achievements over the past 12 months? How have you navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications? COVID-19 has laid bare numerous cracks in prevalent supply chain and operations models built for a different era and forced businesses to urgently re-evaluate how their organizations are led, organized and operated. Resilience and agility have been the watchwords of the past year, with CEOs recognizing they have to urgently accelerate the shift towards digital end-to-end supply chain and operations. Maine Pointe demonstrated its own agility by quickly introducing our three-step approach; stabilize, recover, rebalance as a roadmap for clients. This was underpinned by our flexible onsite/offsite global delivery model, highlighting our ability to deliver services remotely. Ensuring 100% remote delivery by Maine Pointe for clients often unfamiliar with working remotely during the pandemic has been a major achievement for our teams. For example, we set up a new supply chain operation in under six months for a carve out in the chemicals sector. When the pandemic hit, we transitioned to a remote delivery model using cloud-based and remote technologies to run all value creation activities and deliver a project ROI of 6:1 in under eight months. As a result, despite the smaller size of the new business, we reduced supply chain costs, developed and implemented a S&OP process which helped free up 15% of inventory to release cash. This helped the company navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Thereʼs no denying that itʼs been a challenging time for all, but I am very proud of the way Maine Pointe, as a member of the SGS group, has come through. Our next challenge is to help our clients drive measurable digital supply chain and operations transformation and prepare for a surge in growth and a predicted commodities supercycle. Whatʼs the most important business lesson youʼve learned since starting your own company? In my 17 years of running Maine Pointe, there have been many business lessons learned. If I had to pick one, it would be to limit debt and keep plenty of cash available. It can cost some growth at times, but ensures a level of stability in the tough times which allows you to attack the market when your competition is often at its weakest. Artificially inflated earnings through over-use of debt will come home to roost at some point and businesses will often pay a higher price as recovery is more difficult.

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