Procure IQ

Mostly Harmless, Part XXIII Previous Post Enterprises generally fall into two categories: public or private. While the basic requirements for e-Procurement are unchanged whether the installation is intended for the public or private sector, each sector has its own standards for procurement and the system must support the standards, and quirks, of the sector in order to ensure adoption and success. Since most of the posts to date have implicitly assumed that the application is going to be deployed in the private sector, this post will primarily discuss the public sector and some of the sector …

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According to a recent article in Strategy+Business on a return, not to normal, but to reality, Mark Anderson believes that three critical measures need to be put in place before serious recovery can begin: Better Protection of Intellectual Property Considering that most protection seems to revolve around patents that are abused by software patent pirates, not much progress has been made here. Reforms to Prevent Jackals and Vampires from Dominating the Market …

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Without the transparency these systems, this is how vendor discovery really happens: …

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Once upon a time, there was a beautiful old wooden hotel in the North Country. The owner had coaxed an award-winning chef with a new family away from the hurry-scurry of the big city, so the food was fabulous. The staff were locals imbued with the history of the region and an encyclopedic knowledge of hiking trails, scenic vistas, off-the-beaten-track cross-country trails, and so on. The cleaning staff took pride in ensuring that floors and woodwork were polished, the rooms were well-equipped, and bathrooms were spotless. The fixtures and furniture were old but functional, and …

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As I mentioned in my recent post on how marketing is a huge savings opportunity, last year, the Marketing Supply Chain Institute released Define Where to Streamline: Making Marketing Supply Chains More Efficient, Agile, and Enviro-Friendly (registration required) that noted that, with good visibility, an average marketing organization can easily find 20% to 25% savings with Procurement’s help. About ten pages in, the report lists the top five areas where the marketing supply chains could realize sustainability gains (which are the ultimate key to long term savings). These are: print, …

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… is as dumb as all of us! While generally regarded as true, there has, unfortunately, been a lack of evidence to support the belief … until now! As per this recent article on the Knowledge @ Wharton site on how group dynamics may be killing innovation, a recent study by Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich demonstrated that the average quality of the ideas generated by the hybrid process [where participants were given time to brainstorm on their own] were better than those that came from …

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A recent post over on the HBR blogs on the key to spotting disruption before it happens noted that executives have to look beyond revenue or basic market share data to determine whether or not a would be disruption [which would trigger rapid declines in their core business] is a legitimate threat. This is because, in the early days of a transformation — such as mail to e-mail and digital document delivery, or CD to digital (mp3) album downloads, or polaroid to digital cameras and home printers — market leaders tend not to feel deep pain. It’s only …

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According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review on The Sustainability Imperative, over the past 10 years, environmental issues have steadily encroached on businesses’ capacity to create value for customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Globalized workforces and supply chains have created environmental pressures and attendant business liabilities. The rise of new world powers, notably China and India, has intensified competition for natural resources (especially oil) and added a geopolitical dimension to sustainability. “Externalities” such as carbon dioxide emissions and water use are fast becoming material – meaning that investors consider them central to a firm’s performance …

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A recent article over on Industry Week trumpeted the benefits of Seller Side Auctions (SSAs) for commodity sales over traditional negotiations, indicating that the more open and transparent process they enabled bring with it a number of benefits that include: refocused sales resources on higher margin activities an auction reduces the time and direct costs associated with commodity transactions which allows sales teams to focus on custom products and value-added services improved revenue visibility and forecast accuracy …

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An article in the special report on innovation and emerging markets in the April 17th edition of The Economist on the power to disrupt made some very good points on why things will move faster and further this time with emerging markets that deserve to be repeated and discussed because they will, ultimately, disrupt your home markets and the supply chains that serve them. Senior Management Talent Markets are Liquid Great management talent can not come from anywhere, but can go to anywhere. And chances are …

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