Mastering the art of playing nice with others can generate returns –whether you’re a kid on the playground or an executive in the boardroom. When it comes to the sales and marketing teams working together with the operations and supply chain side of the equation, great feats of business can be accomplished based on integrating two forces that have the same goal but are at odds in terms of how it is achieved. The pressure of that goal becomes all too real when more and more retailers are holding suppliers accountable for the promises from the sales and marketing departments in terms of on-time delivery and synchronization of product with the supply chain.

At the Consumer Electronics Supply Chain Academy 2008 panel, “Manufacturers’ and Distributors’ Roundtable: Supply Chain is Everyone’s Business,” the main topic will be how to successfully execute integration of sales and marketing with operations and the supply chain.

One of the perennial challenges in the consumer electronics industry is getting these two forces to work together. Paul Brody runs the global supply chain and electronic industry strategy practice for IBM and he will moderate the panel. “Very simply, supply chain is about getting products to the customer,” he said. “Sales and marketing is about ensuring that there is demand for those products and that people know where to go and buy them, no matter what the retail location.”

It’s not uncommon for a company to spend a tremendous amount of money on a huge advertising campaign that results in consumers rushing to the store for a product that often turns out to be out of stock or still on its way from the warehouse—much to the chagrin of both sales, marketing and supply chain people. With no product on the shelves, the money and campaign was wasted. Competitors were given an edge because, with customers in a retail store looking for a product that they can’t buy, they’ll oftentimes go home with something else. From the retailer’s perspective, even worse, they’ll leave disappointed and empty handed.

“The CESCA roundtable is designed to shed some light on how to get all these different players to play nicely with each other,” said Brody. On a day-to-day basis, he works to optimize supply chain planning at leading CE manufacturers and their distribution companies. For Brody, having been in the supply chain business for 10 years, fixing these kinds of disconnect issues is the bread and butter of his business.

Where is the disconnect? According to Brody, it often starts at the organizational level. “Sales and marketing are working on a completely different concept than supply chain and operations,” he said. At the organizational level, people are measured on different parameters. Those in the supply chain are often bonused for minimizing the amount of inventory lying around. Meanwhile, sales and marketing people would rather there be as much inventory as possible because if it’s not on the shelf then a customer can’t buy it.

Stemming from the organizational disconnect, there is also an informational barrier. “Supply chain folks are often looking at completely different reports and analyses when they are making decisions than marketing people look at,” said Brody. “Oftentimes the supply chain person who is doing the planning for what product will be available doesn’t even know if ads or other marketing initiatives are scheduled to run.” Conversely, if a product is in fact delayed, it’s not uncommon that the marketing person is not aware of that fact when they’re scheduling their advertising.

At CES, an international gathering where selling and marketing are the prime objectives for most companies, products are being shown to potential clients who will order them and plan to fill their stores with them. It is in their best interest to have a handle on the other side of the equation so that the follow-through matches up with the promises. “For them, it’s all about selling,” said Brody. “We’re trying to get all these sales people to have a better understanding of the complexity of supply chain operations.”

The goal of the roundtable and Brody’s job at IBM is to offer executives on the sales and marketing side a better understanding of the value of working closely with supply chain operations folks in order to make sure their product actually gets sold to the consumer.

“One of the things retailers ask is: ‘If I stock your product in my store, will you make sure it’s going to be available?’” Brody said. “So, more and more, big retailers are asking major suppliers to have a very high standard of performance when it comes to the product’s on-time delivery and synchronization of product with sales and marketing.”