A month or so ago, I asked North American Nearsourcers is Brazil in your future, referencing a special report on business and finance in Brazil in the Economist that noted that, for the first time in modern history, Brazil is democratic, experiencing economic growth, and realizing low inflation.Today, I’m asking European Nearsourcers if Russia is in theirs? In a recent Harvard Business Review article on The Promise and Peril of Russia’s Resurgent State (subscription required), we are told that there is money to be made in Russia, as long as companies play by the rules imposed during Putin’s tenure …
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March 5th, 2010 | Posted in Outsourcing, Russia
Despite the self-serving nature of this article/press release by a procurement group in Asia, it’s worth considering whether the Philippines is an overlooked area for procurement outsourcing, especially for back-office buying and transaction-manageme…
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March 1st, 2010 | Posted in Jason Busch, Outsourcing
Friday’s group discussion on Vested Outsourcing led by University of Tennessee faculty member Kate Vitasek went very well. For anyone unfamiliar with her work, Kate literally wrote the book on Vested Outsourcing, a model that utilizes incentives to create more strategic relationships between buying organizations and their outsourcing vendors. So when she stepped up and [...]
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February 22nd, 2010 | Posted in Best Practices, Contract Management, LinkedIn, Outsourcing, Services Procurement, Sourcing, Supply Management
Last month, the Strategic Sourcing & Procurement Group on LinkedIn hosted our 1st Group conference call. Things got off to a great start with Chris Sawchuk leading a discussion on “key issues” in 2010.
Now, for our February call…
Kate Vitasek, who literally wrote the book on “Vested Outsourcing”, will be leading the discussion. So, come armed [...]
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February 18th, 2010 | Posted in Best Practices, LCCS and trade, LinkedIn, Outsourcing, Supply Management
2010 should bring a flurry of new acquisitions with many established companies looking to expand product lines and increase growth within the organization.
Of these companies looking to expand through acquisition, raising capital expense to fund the ne…
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February 18th, 2010 | Posted in Cost Reduction, Distribution, FTL, Functionality, LTL, Logistics, Optimization, Outsourcing, Spend Analysis, Supply Chain, Supply Management Best Practices, Transportation, Warehousing, air freight, analysis, consulting, freight, inter-modal, negotiation, ocean, rail, supply chain talent
Over on Horses for Sources, entrepreneur-turned-stealth-researcher Phil Fersht* recently suggested that some big-name outsourcing firms might be tossing in the towel when it comes to selling and delivering higher value offerings that focus more on pr…
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February 17th, 2010 | Posted in BPO, Jason Busch, Outsourcing
A recent article in Strategy+Business attempted to address The Elusive Right Path to Engineering Offshoring. They proposed a five step plan to making it work, and while the advice was okay, I think the article missed the point. In my view, the right path to engineering offshoring is not to do it at all if you are developing products for the local marketplace. While I will freely admit that there is innovative talent in the outsourcing hotspots of India and China, it’s not necessarily the right innovative talent for you. As a for-profit enterprise, an innovative product …
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February 16th, 2010 | Posted in Outsourcing, Technology
Effectiveness, is key to competing in today’s business environment. Logistics is a process, a supply pipeline which connects you with your vendor/supplier and your customer.
Whether you compete domestically or globally competitors, vendors, suppl…
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February 11th, 2010 | Posted in Cost Reduction, Distribution, FTL, Functionality, LTL, Logistics, Optimization, Outsourcing, Spend Analysis, Supply Chain, Supply Management Best Practices, Transportation, Warehousing, air freight, analysis, consulting, freight, inter-modal, negotiation, ocean, rail, supply chain talent
To approve Spend Analysis projects, project Sponsors often need to justify to their management why they need to utilize Spend Analysis providers to do the project, as opposed to internal IT resources. Some companies may not have this problem in tha…
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February 9th, 2010 | Posted in Functionality, General, Outsourcing, Spend Analysis, Supply Management Best Practices
An article in the Wallstreet Journal provides a wonderful example of how implemented best practices and process improvement programs like Six Sigma can go astray after experts move to other projects, Managers relax accountability and excitement fades. …
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February 4th, 2010 | Posted in General, Outsourcing, Six Sigma, Technology / SaaS, esourcing
