History
SCMO was founded in the year 2000 in Hong Kong, at the beginning of our 21st century. Apart from the opportunistic aspect of SCMO creation, this date was considered auspicious. Since then, SCMO head quarters was relocated to Samoa for strategic reasons related to the status of holdings companies.
Foundation
We founded SCMO at the very beginning of the 4PL industry in Asia. While it started in the 90' in North America, 5 years later in Europe, it was still very much in its infancy in Asia. So we are one of the pioneers in the 4PL industry in Asia. We are also one of the rare advisory firms that have been building the 4PL industry on a global basis.
Construction
Building a new industry is like navigating in blue ocean. The positive aspect is that little or no competition exists, and that this industry is starting its first cycle ever. The challenging aspect is the constant exploration of what works and what does not. What makes money and what does not. A sustainable pursuit to "following the money". An absolute necessity to being centered and flexible, as well as regularly changing our focus, strategy, and marketing materials.
Direction
The only thing that has not changed since SCMO beginnings is our complete dedication to make it happen. By inspiration and will power alone. Step by step. Client after client. Project after project. Challenge after challenge. Success after success. The other thing that has remained unchanged is our unwavering commitment to our code of ethics. From a small startup to a multinational organization, we have remained true to our values.
Evolution
Another characteristics rare in advisory firms is that most SCMO people come from the industry of logistics, transportation, and supply chain management. Those coming from the advisory, legal, and financial worlds came much later. So we explored in blue ocean strategy from a logistics perspective, rather than from an advisory perspective. And we progressively discovered new customer bases, for which we were delighted to adapt our offer of services.
Lessons learnt
Accept people as they are
Accept the world as it is
Build together in a constructive way
Constant discernment is key
See through the illusions
Make it as simple as possible
Operate as a community
Lessons
A few lessons learnt along the way.
Accept people as they are. This is very much the case with SCMO people, who are as richly experienced as they are strongly willed.
Accept the world as it is. Pragmatism has been key to our development and success.
Build SCMO together in a constructive way. This is what all SCMO people have been doing.
Constant discernment is also a key. Certain directions are not ours to take, however tempting.
See through the illusions of conditioning. Once an objective has been chosen, keep pushing towards it, and never give up, no matter what. Profitability is the key to sustainability. Logistics as a discipline also teaches us the bottom line of results in a very hard way.
Make it as simple as possible. This is a must, when every new business step is an hypothesis.
Operate as a community. This is very much the case with SCMO structure: a partnership.
“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.”