Archive for August, 2007

Exercising Common Sense

Strategy+Business recently published an article by the same name that contained a 10-point checklist that leaders of large-scale transformation can use to put their wisdom into practice. Considering that managerial delusions are often rampant, that the Home Bias effect is often in full force, and that What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, any [...]

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Head2Head for the Supply Chain Nail

During my last Toronto trip, I had the chance to sit down with Wayne Burgess, Head2Head’s Supply Chain practice lead and discuss Head2Head’s rather unique supply chain recruitment solution. Head2Head was founded in 2000 by two guys in a basement who thought an innovative approach was required in recruitment. Today, they have roughly 30 employees [...]

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Rumblings from Rumelt

The McKinsey Quarterly recently published an article by Dan P. Lovallo and Lenny T. Mendonca titled Strategy’s Strategist: An Interview with Richard Rumelt that had a number of great insights from the man himself. Richard Rumfelt, a professor of strategy at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, where he holds the Harry and Elsa [...]

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JLP Responsible Sourcing Part XII: Summary

This series of posts reviewed the John Lewis Partnership’s Responsible Sourcing Supplier Workbook and summarized each of the key areas of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that you need to get a grip on to truly be a good corporate citizen. Based on this knowledge, as per the workbook’s recommendations, you should be: [...]

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Supply Chain Humor This Week VI

First Things First: All Hat Tips again go to Tony Poshek, The Satirical Sourcerer (formerly known as The Cynical Sorcerer, but it seems only us bloggers got the joke) Someone needs to learn the definition of “Median”Sometimes you get a 2-for-1 out of a story. The reporter in this article is discussing [...]

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Top Supply Tips Conclusion: Make House Calls

The final submission in The 100 Greatest Supply Management Tips of All Time! contest revisits an old-school technique to uncovering your supplier’s hidden secrets — both good and bad:

Make house calls: Have your sourcing team visit key suppliers’ headquarters, factories, plants, or showrooms on a regularly scheduled basis. Suppliers will give you insight into the [...]

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Top Supply Tips Continued: Start Simple

If you listen to purchasing blogs like this one, it would seem that supply management improvements are impossible without the use of advanced software. And why not? There is ample evidence from industry benchmarks (such as those from Aberdeen Group, Hackett Group, and CAPS) that use of strategic sourcing and supplier management software is a [...]

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Remember when: PurchasePro TV Ads

Here, rolling into a holiday weekend, I took time to remember brothers-in-arms, who had fallen along the way. One of the funniest things I have ever seen a company in eSourcing do, was when PurchasePro launched a TV ad campaign. I will always remember standing in my kitchen with CNN on and the [...]

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A Global Trade Primer

The Global Trade import and export cycles are quite involved, each involving at least 14 steps, which can be summarized as follows.

The Global Trade Import Cycle

Supplier Selection
Purchase Order Generation
Transport Insurance
Financing
Carrier Selection
Document Creation
Goods Departure
Shipment Tracking
Importation
Goods Receipt
[...]

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Automotive Co-Ops and Other Tall Tales

In case you missed it, the automotive sector went back to the future last week, when the world’s largest automakers announced plans to share more parts and assemblies in an effort to hold down cost and improve quality.
On paper, the move could provide much-needed cost and product stability. However, the auto sector has a dubious track [...]

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