Procure IQ

I agree with Bing. Please, Tiger, don’t apologize anymore. But it’s not just Tiger I want to stop apologizing. Unless you have a reason to apologize to the public, unless you mean it, and unless you have a way to fix it (if it needs fixin’), please shut the hell up and stop clogging all the news channels with bullcr@p. Most of us are too damn busy to keep up with real news. We don’t need your insincere whining, and the endless media commentary, clogging up the TV, Radio, and Internet news feeds 24 hours …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

A recent article over on the Harvard Business Review blogs addressed Obama’s Five Collaboration Mistakes that are representative of many of the common collaboration mistakes that prevent cooperation efforts from ever bearing fruit. If you understand them, you can take steps to prevent them, and have a much better chance of seeing results from your efforts. Use the Right Language with Rank-and-FileDon’t do like his Chief of Staff and call them F@cking Retarded. They might not have your understanding of an issue, but it’s not their fault, it’s yours. You should be educating them, at their level, …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

I know Ariba is pretty fond of their SpendMan superhero, but I have to wonder, now that Speedy Gonzales is getting his own movie, if they’ll trade up. After all, who has more credibility, a made up “spend superhero”, or a classic Warner Brothers cartoon character who has been beloved by generations since 1953 and yells “Ariba, Ariba, Ariba, Andale” every time he outruns and outwits a foe. Just watch this classic Speedy Gonzalez vs Sylvester clip on Youtube and then check out the rather unexciting comics on Spendman’s Facebook page. I don’t know about you, but …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

Recently, boingboing ran an article about a Zero rupee note that Indians can slip to corrupt officials who demand bribes. The idea of the note, pictured below, was to shock grafters into honesty. Given all of the recent bribery scandals north and south of the 49th parallel, I’m wondering if we shouldn’t have a $0 Dollar bill that honest businessmen can slip to politicians who demand bribes and kickbacks before awarding contracts. Or are our some of our politicians just too corrupt?Share This on Linked In …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

And there’s a wrong way. This is the wrong way:Hat Tip to the Autoblog.Share This on Linked In …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

After reading this recent article on TechCrunch which asks How Does Compete Get Its Web Traffic Data?, which followed Jason Calcanis’ rant on Why We Should Boycott Comscore, and after noticing that my Alexa, Ranking, and Traffic Estimate Rankings bounce up and down on the string of a yo-yo despite the fact that my traffic has been non-decreasing since day one (as it’s always holding steady if not steadily increasing), I’m starting to wonder. (Quantcast is still pretty good, though sometimes it seems that it’s gone from reporting over 60% to missing slightly over 60%*, but that’s …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

I’m a big fan of collaboration between supply chain financing and procurement/accounts payable to reduce supply risk and enable vendors to access working capable at more reasonable rates. I’m even a fan of The Receivables Exchange, one of the pioneer…

Read the rest » SpendMatters

While reading The Talent Game (membership required) Panel Discussion transcript, I was horrified to read that one participant said that many employees are being told they are lucky to have a job — that is one form of retention. Simply put, it’s disgusting. Not only does it show an utter lack of respect for the employee, but it also shows an utter lack of competence in talent management. Even if you recently went through a layoff, presumably the employees you retained are those employees who were best at the …

Read the rest » Sourcing Innovation

When I say “casino”, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Probably for most of you, it’s money. Actually more like MONEY. Money being spent, won and lost at breakneck speed. And although you’ve possibly had trips to Vegas where you were up against The House (and ask a gambler, and they’ll always tell you [...]

Read the rest » Supply Excellence

A question I’ve been asking of those involved in P2P compliance and controls, quite a bit recently, is whether or not they’ve seen a rise of procurement fraud in recent years. Most respond with the simple party line answer: “no”. But lurking beneath …

Read the rest » SpendMatters