Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise: Innovation During Uncertain Times

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Rasheed Mohamad, Global Revenue and Operations Officer at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
Rasheed Mohamad, Global Revenue and Operations Officer at ALE, examines how businesses are turning supply chain adversity into opportunity

Businesses worldwide have spent the past few years grappling with health crises, economic instability and geopolitical disruptions.

These turbulent times have underscored the importance of resilience, innovation and adaptability in navigating uncertainty.

Organisations have been compelled to rethink traditional approaches, embracing new technologies and strategies to optimise operations while maintaining flexibility.

Here, Rasheed Mohamad, Global Revenue and Operations Officer at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, delves into how businesses are turning adversity into opportunity, leveraging tools like business intelligence, automation and collaboration to thrive in a volatile world.

How has Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise turned recent challenges into opportunities for growth? 

The past few years have brought unprecedented health, economic and geopolitical challenges, placing businesses in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world. At ALE, we’ve embraced this reality by prioritising operational resilience, transforming challenges into opportunities to innovate and grow.

Turbulent times have underscored the importance of supply chain resilience

Our focus has shifted towards creating robust systems that balance efficiency with resilience. Before 2020, businesses aimed to reduce waste and increase efficiency, optimising processes to deliver maximum value with minimal resource use. However, the pandemic and ensuing global instability disrupted these systems, challenging the very foundation of operations. By digitalising infrastructure and centralising data, we’ve enhanced visibility across operations, allowing us to identify inefficiencies while maintaining the flexibility to adapt.

Specific measures have been implemented to strengthen resilience. These include investing in flexible logistics routes designed to adapt to geopolitical shifts, ensuring that transportation delays do not affect delivery commitments. Diversifying suppliers has also reduced dependency on any single source, improving our ability to cope with shortages or other disruptions. 

These efforts align with the broader industry shift, emphasising operational resilience over sole optimisation. The pandemic highlighted a vital lesson: over-focusing on resolving predictable challenges leaves little room to handle the unpredictable. ALE's proactive strategies ensure we meet customer needs while preparing for future uncertainties.

What role does business intelligence play in navigating supply chain disruptions and other challenges?

Business intelligence plays a pivotal role in navigating supply chain disruptions and overcoming challenges, forming the cornerstone of our strategy to build a sustainable future. During the pandemic, we faced significant hurdles such as factory shutdowns, limited freight availability, rising costs and a shortage of electronic components. Leveraging business intelligence proved to be indispensable in addressing these issues.

Data became our most valuable resource and we harnessed it with precision to enable hyper-informed decision-making. By using real-time data across all four stages of our sales and supply chain process, we were able to swiftly identify anomalies and implement timely adjustments. This proactive approach not only mitigated immediate risks but also drove continuous improvement in our systems and processes.

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How important is a proactive approach to addressing supply chain challenges? Can cross-organisational collaboration benefit business operations?

During times of disruption, a proactive approach is essential. During the pandemic, ALE proactively collaborated with suppliers to anticipate future needs and stock critical components. This foresight allowed us to meet every customer order, even during peak instability.

Cross-organisational collaboration proved invaluable in supporting this proactive strategy. At ALE, we established a 'Tiger Team' that brought together individuals from sales, manufacturing, partner relations and other key functions. This team maintained a bird's-eye view of operations, ensuring alignment across departments. This collaborative effort was instrumental in ensuring that ALE adapted successfully to the challenges of a disrupted world.

How can automating predictable tasks help streamline processes?

Automation is becoming an increasingly vital tool in managing predictable challenges, allowing organisations to focus resources on more complex problems. Advances in AI and machine learning have enabled businesses like ALE to automate complex tasks. According to Gartner, top performing supply chain organisations are investing in AI and machine learning (ML) at more than twice the rate of their lower-performing peers. 

Sales and operations planning (S&OP) can now be coordinated using AI, ensuring that supply and demand are aligned more efficiently. Automated demand forecasting improves accuracy and enables faster decision-making. AI chatbots can also streamline internal and external communication by instantly providing data, such as stock availability, significantly reducing the time spent on manual research and email exchanges.

While automation excels in optimising routine operations, its limitations lie in handling unprecedented events like pandemics. This is where human expertise becomes crucial. Looking forwards, automation should be used to handle predictable tasks, freeing up teams to focus on predicting and mitigating the unpredictable. This combination of technology and human innovation ensures we are prepared to navigate future challenges while remaining efficient and adaptable.

ALE advocates for a proactive approach to dealing with supply chain disruption

Given the growing importance of ESG, how does ALE plan to drive growth while minimising its environmental impact?

Amid disruption, it can be easy to sideline ESG initiatives. However, at ALE, we saw the pandemic as an opportunity to establish a more defined ESG framework. Partnering with expert consultants, we conducted a comprehensive double materiality assessment to evaluate our environmental impact across the entire value chain, including our supply chain.

To drive meaningful change, we formed the 'Game Changers Team', transforming our existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme into a more robust and actionable ESG strategy. This shift allowed us to focus on how we can better care for the planet while aligning with evolving global priorities.

As our customers and their organisations increasingly seek green technology solutions, we recognise that words alone are not enough. Commitments to sustainability must translate into tangible actions. That’s why initiatives like our ALE #GoGreen programme are crucial in creating a lasting, positive impact on the environment.

What steps should organisations take to prepare for the future, not only in terms of navigating crises but also in terms of contributing to a more sustainable future?

To effectively prepare for the future, organisations must adopt a forward-thinking approach that addresses both crisis management and their contribution to a sustainable world. Key focus areas include proactivity, cross-organisational communication, automation and business intelligence. However, the cornerstone of these efforts is staying true to core business values.

For ALE, these values include speed, agility, customer-centricity and reliability. By placing these pillars at the heart of every decision and action, the company can effectively navigate uncertainty while fostering a sustainable future.


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