Thomas Gruen recently presented his book “Shelf Confidence” at the IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, alongside his co-author Daniel Corsten, who is a professor there.
The event featured a panel discussion on supply chain and operations, including esteemed speakers such as David Martinez Fontano, CEO of Makro España, Eduardo López-Puertas, End to End Supply Chain Director at Makro España, and Manel Jimenez, Operations Director at Tendam.
Gruen and Corsten conducted extensive research on supply and operations management for over 23 years, exploring the business activities of companies such as P&G in their book. Drawing on their wealth of experience, the authors delved into topics such as improving service levels, reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction.
“We were excited to have the opportunity to present our book at IE, where Daniel Corsten is Professor of Operations Management. It was wonderful to have the enthusiasm for the topics in our book expressed by the IE Business School Dean, Lee Newman, as well as the panel and the audience.
My co-author, Daniel Corsten, and I have a unique collaboration blending marketing and operations as well as the North American and European perspectives. This uniqueness makes our work difficult to categorize, but we think it necessary to blend these elements to find solutions as the out-of-stocks and availability impact shopper and managers alike.
For those who have not been to IE, the tower in the business districts in the north part of Madrid is impressive and demonstrates their commitment to integrating the business school with industry.
The only disappointment for the evening was that one of the panelists, Ana Gonzalez Herrera, Senior Supply Chain Director for Procter & Gamble, had to cancel at the last minute. Procter & Gamble has been our major benefactor in financing our work for the past 20 years.”
