Sourcing
If you paid $300 million to a company run by a 22 year old CEO and his certified massage therapist VP, would you double check to make sure you got what you paid for? Heck if I ordered a pizza from a couple of characters like that I would look inside the box before ever [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
If Spend Management has a limiting axiom, it might be the idea that there is a limit to how much cost you can take out of an item, service or process. After all, cost can not go to zero…can it?
With a slightly different perspective on things, it turns out that cost can nearly go to [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
Over on All Roads, Richard Brubaker has the scoop that the Chinese government is considering seriously curtailing factory production between July 17th and September 20th of this year. This is not an April Fools joke (like my post about quitting this …
Read the rest » SpendMatters
Have you ever been in a meeting with an internal stakeholder who doesn’t want any help on their category because it’s too complex, or is the creative service that can’t be effectively sourced or managed by anybody but the supplier and that stakeholder himself? Then this story is for you…
In the Business Week article “The [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
The massive run up in commodity prices followed by last week’s sudden sell off has everyone wondering … are commodities the next bubble to burst? In fact, typically cool headed coverage in journals like the Financial Times warned of a looming “big fall” in commodities. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here.
Relatively [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
Whenever someone cries foul that they can’t compete on a level playing field and are therefore owed an unfair advantage relative to the their global competition, it’s usually a sign that they’ve either underinvested in global sourcing capabilities th…
Read the rest » SpendMatters
Many of you have already seen excerpts from a recent Booz Allen / American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai that looks at what types of organizations are getting the most out of their procurement and operations efforts in China. They key to success, a su…
Read the rest » SpendMatters
A recent post on Logistics Management’s Loose Change blog tried to make that case that truckload rates will defy prevailing wisdom and actually begin to climb in the coming months. The logic is based on two things: First, that attrition rates of truck fleets would tighten up capacity. Second, that tonnage increases in recent months [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
With the run up in product recalls and food concerns last year, product quality and supply risk management have captured the attention of the C-suite and the general public. Supply managers have an opportunity to leverage this crisis to boost their brand in the organization and help their companies turn the strategic balancing of cost, [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence
With Tata Motors unveiling of its much-anticipated one-lakh (about 100,000 rupees or $2,500 U.S.) Nano car last week, the race to deliver the most affordable car officially kicked into high gear. Analysts revved up positive predictions for the future of the auto industry as automakers around the world scrambled to revive efforts to deliver small, [...]
Read the rest » Supply Excellence