The big news on the automotive front this week was GM and Chrysler formally submitting their restructuring plans plans for realignment – including requests for additional TARP funds – to the Feds. Given the magnitude of the stakes and patriotic pride of these American brands, it’s no surprise to see so much ink devoted [...]
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To celebrate their three decades on the air, PBS’ Nightly Business Report teamed up with Knowledge@Wharton to select the 30 most important innovations from the last 30 years, which can be found on the PBS Site. Without giving everything away, the top 10 were: 10. Non-invasive laser/robotic surgery [...]
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A recent CFO article on The Next Wave did a great job of pointing out that litigation is likely to spike again this year, starting next quarter. Noting that recession-related litigation last spiked in 2001 when the dot-com bubble burst, the wounds of recession often encounter a particularly painful form of salt as corporate attorneys [...]
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Purchasing Magazine’s latest cover story showcases the unique approaches and salesmanship procurement professionals need to employ to successfully convince internal customers — such as marketing and IT — of the benefit they can bring to negotiating and managing complex services spending. And the article couldn’t come at a better time.
With the national unemployment rate at [...]
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If you’re a proactive organization, chances are that you’ve been trying to re-source your way out of this downturn by taking advantage of recent cost reductions in commodity categories across the board. This means that, if you haven’t started already, you’ll soon be entering into final-round face-to-face negotiations with your (new) preferred suppliers. [...]
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Last fall, both Chief Executive and Industry Week published some good articles on how to survive the downtown — and win — that are worth a quick review. In Winning through the Downturn, Chief Executive starts off by telling us that as far as your business is concerned you should [...]
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Yesterday was a horrendous day for manufacturing news. First up were the highly anticipated restructuring plans by GM and Chrysler. Chrysler’s announcement of 3,000 job cuts combined with their $5 billion in requested federal funds looked relatively good compared with GM’s 47,000 planned cuts and additional $16 billion request. Yikes. Both companies are aiming for [...]
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In his Friday Rant, Mr. Busch asked if kicking out consultants was a smart cost cutting strategy. I promptly answered, Hell, No and pointed out my posts on why Consultants are Cheap, it’s easy to get maximum value from consultants, and that any we don’t need no consultants here logic is flawed. (I [...]
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A week and a half ago I alerted you to Vince Kellen’s Technology Duds for 2009 which highlighted five “anti-trends” for 2009 that stand out as a brilliant counterpoint to the rose-colored predictions of the laissez-fair wannabe analysts that tend to dominate the technology landscape. After writing the post I started [...]
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With all the news about product recalls – from peanuts to lead tainted toys – and economic uncertainty, there’s been substantial conversation over the last year-plus about the importance of implementing a robust and comprehensive Supplier Performance Management (SPM) system. While this has been on company’s “wish lists” for some time, the confluence of [...]
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