PHILOSOPHY
Back to Basics
Mind Up believes that long-lasting business benefits come from combining practical purchasing with cooperation and engagement, both in the field and in the minds of all teams involved.
Short-term subcontracting works for a brief period of time. Still, a vendor and its products go hand in hand: the quality of one directly reflects the quality of the other.
More and more businesses are waking up to this idea and realise the need to readdress the quality and productivity costs that are generated by over-sized or under-managed vendor bases which also threaten the reputation of the business.
Working on a vendor base to mitigate the risks is crucial but there is more...
Challenging our purchasing routines, improving vendor relationships by ensuring transparent communication and nurturing long-term partnerships will not only significantly reduce the risk of over-spending and over-allocation of resources.
It will also create value by improving company best purchasing practices and the positive impact the business has on vendors, workers, communities, consumers and the environment.
Sustainability can seem abstract, especially when put in the context of business targets and ambitious savings.
Yet, it doesn’t involve changing the whole structure of the supply chain.
At Mind Up, we know how to create sustainable business practices, in a way that is pragmatic and tangible, and positively impacts your value chain.
Are you ready to make a difference?
MISSIONS
IMPROVE PERFORMANCE WITH VALUE-DRIVEN & PEOPLE-ORIENTED SOLUTIONS
UNDERSTAND &
MITIGATE RISKS
UNDERSTAND & ASSESS YOUR VENDORS RISKS TO DESIGN BESPOKE BUSINESS & SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGIES.
ADD VALUE TO
YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN
SUPPORT YOUR STRATEGIC VENDORS ON-FIELD IN THEIR SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES.
FOSTER LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIPS
GATHER PURCHASING TEAMS & VENDORS AROUND COMMON TARGETS & VALUES FOR LONG-TERM IMPACT.
SERVICES
Purchasing, ESG & risk management strategies (Due Diligence)
Align your business strategies with your vision, purpose & values to increase resilience.
We support you in (re)defining your business strategies to better address vendors performance, risks management, global sourcing stakes,... and your direct and indirect social & environmental impact. During the process, we engage your teams and stakeholders to help you design the most bespoke solutions and tools for deployment (mappings, materiality assessment, ...).
Vendors & Partners performance
From global sourcing to consolidation, a qualitative vendor base positively impacts your performance on the long term.
We offer solutions to help you define realistic performance indicators for your vendors and simple and pragmatic assessment methods. More importantly we help improve the communication, collaboration and transparency between your vendors and your purchasing teams in order to reach common targets.
Social evaluations, on-site guidance & capacity building
All your vendors may not have reached the same level of understanding and integration of social fundamentals.
We offer solutions to operationally deploy your social strategy in a meaningful way: while keeping the reality of the field and cultural challenges at heart, we work closely with your vendors to guide them and ensure that they meet the minimum social and environmental requirements of your business and/or international standards (i.e SA8000). We make realistic and bespoke recommendations by promoting an improvement-oriented mindset. We can also build upon your business's internal code of conducts to empower your employees to continue to independently form solid vendor relationships.
Traceability & raw materials
Better knowing your entire value chain is essential to secure your supplies in accordance with your values.
We offer solutions to go up your supply-chain from the factory to the farm and identify the key business, social & environmental practices of the various actors. It helps you to better manage your risk but also identify promising partners. With pragmatism and care, we collaborate closely with your purchasing teams and first rank suppliers to define common objectives, so that they gradually open the doors of their lower tier partners with full transparency. We can then accompany each actor to set up better practices in terms of sustainable agriculture, animal welfare, environmental protection and human rights; While developing each actor accountability towards the rest of the chain.
Governance, processes & organisation
The foundations to success
Having a strong governance and organisation will greatly improve efficiency, and the motivation of your all your teams, including partners.
We offer solutions to challenge and optimise your current organisation, but also purchasing processes, practices and people capabilities to improve the overall performance.
approach
Our approach is bespoke, result-oriented, practical and mindful of local customs and cultural values.
After understanding the challenges, we promote a step-by-step and prioritised approach that leads to practical solutions.
We know that small changes can have a big impact and so this is where we start.
Although challenges throughout different industries can be similar, each solution is unique.
It needs to be adapted to your company vision, size, maturity, values, culture and most importantly your people.
Our experience in Asia shows us that this culturally rich and complex continent requires businesses to think outside the box; we are mindful of cultural values when engaging and empowering your people and your vendors to own the challenges at hand and find pragmatic solutions to create long-term impact.
We work in China, India, South-East Asia, but also France, Maghreb and Eastern Europe.
business cases
Business & ESG strategy set up
Location: Hong Kong
Industry: Industry/retail
Target
- Define stakes and business sustainability pillars to increase resilience.
- Increase teams engagement towards leadership vision to genuinely increase business practices.
Key success factors
- Leadership willingness to set up a differentiating & value-adding strategy.
- Ownership & participation of stakeholders in project definition & tools development.
Outcomes
- A materiality assessment to visualize key stakes (ESG) and their perception by a representative selection of key stakeholders (internal and external).
- A practical evaluation of governance & business practices.
- A bespore 5-year road map with concrete actions, in line with company's culture, vendors maturity & current business stakes.
Social evaluation, on-site guidance & capacity building
Location: Asia, Europe
Industry: All industries
Target:
- Support & animate vendors’ leadership progress to own and make positive changes for the long run.
- Empower workers and giving them a voice to work in improving their conditions, in and out of the vendor.
Key success factors:
- A realistic, people-oriented and pragmatic approach to company's cuture (beyond compliance).
- Rewarding vendors' transparency with constructive dialogues and the production of tangible recommendations, within realistic timelines.
- The engagement of the purchasing team in supporting the changes.
Outcomes:
- Vendor recognition, acceptance and gradual alignment with basic compliance and business impact.
- Positive changes for workers in terms of safety & working environment.
- Increased cooperation and strengthened relationships.
Vendor performance assessment
Location: Hong Kong
Industry: Retail & Manufacturing
Target
- Assess and monitor performance of over 100 vendors throughout 3 product categories.
- Drive vendor strategy both short-term and long-term.
Key success factors
- Active participation of all teams involved in vendors selection to define realistic KPIs in line with their targets & values.
- Promoted a continuous improvement approach which suits to both vendors and procurement teams.
Outcomes
- Production of practical and visual scorecards & mapping tools.
- Enhanced communication & collaboration with vendors on newly developed KPI s and business requirements.
- Volumes consolidation on high-performing and strategic vendors.
Traceability/ raw materials projects
Location: China
Industry: Textile
Target:
- Secure raw material supply: its quality and availability in the mid-term.
- Identify and support the value chain actors in their challenges
- Ensure the respect of fundamentals in terms of social, environmental and animal welfare practices throughout the entire chain.
Key success factors:
- Strong collaboration with Rank-1 partner and definition of common objectives to address the chain.
- Integration of the complexity of the supply chain and its related cultural & human challenges,
Outcomes:
- Identification of key actors involved in the value chain and their challenges
- Creation of a bespoke charter and framework,.
- Partnership strengthening with rank 1 supplier and collaborative work
BIO
Marjorie Hobin
Founder
My passion for China and Asia dates back to 20 years ago, when I embarked upon her journey of studying Mandarin. After graduating in 2006 from EM Lyon in France and the Sun Yat Sen University in Taiwan, I moved to Shanghai.
Whilst working with the Saint-Gobain Asia Sourcing Office for almost 8 years,
I developed an in-depth and extensive knowledge of both operational sourcing and strategic purchasing, managed global purchasing and sourcing projects and oversaw the B2B marketing and operational functions of the business.
In 2013, turning a long-life dream of exploration and writing into reality, I travelled the world for a year.
Returning to China in September of 2014, I founded Mind Up Consulting and became a SA8000-certified social auditor. Since then, combining my expertise in procurement, sustainability and manufacturing with a deep passion for people and cultures, I work on anchoring long-term performance in organisations through pragmatism, care and shared-value creation solutions.
I currently live in Thailand with my family.
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