If the economy doesn’t get better soon, this may just be the doctor’s next job . After all, we already have pirates on Lake Erie. The Last Nova Scotian Pirate I used to be a farmer, and I made a living fine I had a little stretch of land along the county line But times were hard and though I tried, the money wasn’t there And the bankers came and took my land and told me “fair is fair” …
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Reading this recent article in The Raw Story on how the United Nations Conference Is Calling For A New Global Currency got me thinking if the current state of the US Economy, which hasn’t seen it’s current level of debt in almost 65 years, will finally see the introduction of the amero. The fact of the matter is that it might be just what the US needs to maintain its status as the global defacto currency standard. Consider the recent posterity potential index that measures the likelihood of economic transparency in the year 2020 for 30 developed countries which …
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I thought we might try something different this Friday and if it works perhaps turn it into a regular feature here. The news often tells the story of spend management efforts gone awry … or worse yet … a total lack of spend management! Thus is the case with the Air Force’s attempt to award a bid for new aerial refueling tankers.
The facts:
I have little doubt that all of you reading this would go about this process differently. And although Capital Hill politics play heavily into the debate, let’s pretend for a minute that we don’t have to worry about key players bringing home the bacon.
So, you have a complex project with two main competitors trying to earn the business. What do you think the Air Force did wrong? And what would you do differently?
Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.
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One of the invited presentations at the MPower-hosted BPX exchange last week was Dr. Lloyd Rinehart’s talk on “Relationship Management Systems for Internal Procurement Strategies”. In his talk, which was very good, Lloyd noted that there are multiple dimensions of corporate relationships today and that each relationship can be classified into one of seven different categories based on the amount of trust, interaction frequency, and commitment in the relationship. The seven relationship categories that Dr. Rinehart has identified in his research are the following: Relationship Type Trust …
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Monday the New York Times ran an article on the “new state of normal” in terms of corporate travel. Many companies have tightened their controls over travel spend during the recession and are unlikely to loosen the reigns in the recovery. And according Directravel’s Vince Vitti, who is quoted throughout the article, companies should accomplish their belt tightening goals by cracking down on misuse, abuse and padding of travel expenses by employees.
Among other suggestions, Vitti recommends companies put the hammer down on lunches that don’t involve clients, car rentals when public transport would suffice, and even frequent flier miles that the company could claim they have truly earned since they foot the bill. As for how to achieve compliance:
“All the C.F.O. has to do is hang one or two people” for expense account padding, he said. “Then everybody will straighten out, at least for a couple of years.”
No doubt companies must do what they can to drive compliance, although the case can certainly be made for focusing on the front end (approval flows, travel tools w/ built in logic, etc.) rather than with a fine tooth comb and some very public hangings.
At the end of the day, it’s up to a company to decide how to balance their travel policies so that employees are productive, yet cost effective. Anyone who’s ever been on a college road trip or backpacked across Europe knows that travel can be done on the cheap. But as you crammed into your public bus or youth hostel bunk, could you have finalized preparation on a big presentation that you needed to give in 6 short, jet-lagged “sleep” filled hours? And are there better ways to control travel spend?
In an interview with ExpenseMatters earlier this week, my colleague Dan Ashton, recommended companies treat T&E as part of their larger pool of indirect spend. Dan says integrating it into the same spend management processes and technology as other indirect spend categories provides improvements in spend visibility, user adoption (due to use of one toolset rather than multiple systems) and compliance. If the result of this approach is costs savings and happy, productive business travelers, I would say that that beats nickel & diming employees over taxi fares.
Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.
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In a recent article in Manufacturing & Logistics IT from i2 SCL contributors on Social Marketing & Supply Chain Management: The Next Consumer Data Challenge and Opportunity, the authors quote a recent Forrester Research report that states that three of four adults who go online in the US are leveraging social content on a regular basis and state that it’s a resounding yes that retailers and consumer product companies can leverage these tools and the demand signals they render to better run their supply chains. I’m not sure I entirely agree. First of all, the concept of “social …
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Today’s post is from Chris Jacob Abraham of IBM and blogmaster of @ Supply Chain Management.Are you pat down with the “V” shaped recovery or perhaps the “U” shaped recovery? Or perhaps, you’re attuned to stair stepping model of recovery that is headed to the dungeon of doom (nefarious toothless grin on my face)? As you might gather from the dates between the last post and this one, I’ve been so long in the dungeon of doom, it is so dark there, that I’ve made only the slightest efforts to surface albeit with a severe case of decompression. I am …
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At the Atlanta Spend Management Day yesterday, Kurt Albertson, Director of Advisory Services with The Hackett Group, examined past predictions and gave some new insight into 2010 predictions and beyond.
According to Hackett’s forecasts from July 2008, the 2009 economy was going to create the “perfect storm.” It was a time to secure up supply, highlight difficult-to-find savings, find new talent, and educate existing talent. But when asked who increased their procurement staff, only three hands went up. Turns out, very few organizations had the opportunity to do so. Talent management quickly fell to the bottom of the chart as other issues rose to the top, but will be headed back up in the next year.
Other predictions for 2009 also turned out to be a little off. For example, in 2008-2009 the supply risk focus was supposed to be on bankrupt suppliers. In reality, how many struggled with bankrupt suppliers this year? No hands. Turns out, regulatory issues with the new administration, industry-specific issues, and participating in sustainability (and to what extent), were all big issues for 2009. And the same issues will most likely continue for 2010. But be sure to throw in a little swine flu risk and inflationary concerns, just for kicks.
As for other concerns, are jobs coming back in 2011? No hands. Are budgets coming back in 2011? No hands again. I started to wonder if our crowd was spot-on or just really pessimistic. Upon further reflection, I would actually describe the mood as realistic. No one was solemn or downtrodden regarding the economic conditions for 2010. Nor was anyone overly joyful and optimistic that the economy was good-to-go for the upcoming year. And it turns out, according to The Hackett group, that our crowd was somewhat accurate. Budgets will come back, but slowly. And jobs will come back, too. But again slowly and in different forms.
While no one knows exactly what 2010-11 will bring, we can all hope for the best and plan for the worst. Be sure that your contingency plan covers the worst possibly case scenario so that you’ll be prepared for anything that the tapering economic storm may throw your way.
For more specific tips, be sure to check out Justin’s latest post on the seven questions Hackett suggests you ask as we head into 2010.
Caroline Robinson has been in the spend management industry for four years and currently manages Ariba’s external webinar programs, focusing on thought-leadership and best practices.
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Forgive me for this bad play on words, but I just couldn’t help it after reading this story in a recent edition of eWeek on how N.C. Wants Dell to Repay Incentives for Closing Plant. It seems that Dell received over $300 Million in tax breaks and other incentives in exchange for opening its plant in Winston-Salem North Carolina 4 years ago and didn’t take that into account when they decided to close the plant. Now, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue is determined to ensure that the state gets “every red cent back that Dell has received”. Just …
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Purchasing Magazine ran a listing of vendors that offer spend analysis solutions, available via this link. It must be a tall order for companies to accurately assess and evaluate this technology solution, as I would only consider 11 of the 17 to be sp…
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