Procure IQ

The recent report on Supply Chain Strategy in the Board Room by the Cranfield School of Management and Solving Efeso had some interesting and surprising statistics on the frequency of supply chain strategy review and the supply chain planning horizon. Namely, while the frequency of review was all over the place and ranged from less than a year at some companies to over 3 years at others, with an average of approximately 1.25 years for the electronics industry and 2.70 years for the heavy machinery industry, with the exception of APAC, the average planning horizon was between 3 and …

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A recent article in the Harvard Business Review on leadership in the age of transparency noted that whereas, in ages past, companies could ignore “externalities” and still prosper, today’s leaders are finding that, in order to truly prosper, they have to internalize the “externalities” and successfully manage them long before they creep into realm of regulation or law. (In economics, an exernality [or transaction spillover] is a cost or benefit, not transmitted through prices, incurred by a party who did not agree to the action causing the cost or benefit. As a result, in a competitive market, prices …

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In addition to offering insights into planning horizons and supply chain strategy drivers, the recent report on Supply Chain Strategy in the Board Room by the Cranfield School of Management and Solving Efeso also summarized six drivers of a successful supply chain strategy. While there were no surprises, the points do deserve reiterating. A balanced input of vision. A strategy developed without the blinders on generally works better than one developed with the blinders on. Frequent …

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The recent report on Supply Chain Strategy in the Board Room by the Cranfield School of Management and Solving Efeso listed the top 10 functional drivers of supply chain strategy at the 181 companies surveyed in the report. While all are valid considerations, the reality is that there should be only one driver of corporate supply chain strategy, because there’s a big difference between a consideration and a driver. Customer service, distribution, and planning are all valid considerations, but none should drive the supply chain strategy. The supply chain strategy should be driven by the corporate strategy and …

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A recent article on CPO Agenda that asked if there is a hole in your synergy strategy bucket made some very good points about how Procurement can often help to identify the right IT strategy and synergies to make a merger or acquisition a success. However, what it failed to mention is that in addition to contract analysis and risk assessment, market research, negotiation management, and should-cost analysis, procurement can also serve as the mediator who helps the organization identify the IT needs and the most appropriate strategies. Furthermore, until the desired go-forward strategies are identified, contract analysis …

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… so long as it is black. This is one piece of advice from the early 20th century that we should not have forgotten in the early 21st. Maybe if a few more companies remembered this, they would not be in such dire straits. Consider the case of PolyOne Corporation that we discussed in a recent post on coming back from the brink to cash in the bank and how the complexity of too many manufacturing locations producing too many product variants was running them deep into the red. Now consider the case of Apple — one …

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A couple of posts ago, we told you that sustainability is the current megatrend and that your organization needed to adapt. Then, in our last sustainability megatrend post, we discussed the four stages of value creation that traditionally identified megatrends and what they meant to your supply chain. In this post, we’ll offer some tips on getting execution right, courtesy of the Harvard Business Review and its article on the sustainability imperative. While vision, and a good working knowledge of the value creation process, is important, the key to success ultimately relies in execution. Specifically, a …

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It might be a “jobless recovery”, but the talent war is here as firms have to do more with less. Are you ready for it? Or are you making these six common talent management mistakes, as highlighted in a recent Harvard Business Review article on How to Keep Your Top Talent, that will cost your organization your top talent? Assuming that High Potentials are Highly Engaged 12 in 60 (20%) believe that personal aspirations …

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Late last year, CAPS Research released a report on Supply Strategy Implementation: Current State and Future Opportunities 2009 that was based on data from 130 supply organizations across 26 industries. The data contained over 1,000 short-sentence responses that were analyzed to come up with this list of the top eight obstacles to supply strategy implementation: Lack of Executive Engagement and Resource Support Inappropriate Organization and Governance Business / Manufacturing / Operations / Technology / Supply Strategies …

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In this post, I’m going to discuss highlights from the CPO Executive Debate on the price of flexible supply chains and focus on why you have to focus on the end consumer. Although Supply Management doesn’t typically deal with the end customer, one of the ultimate keys to success is a fanatical focus on the end customer. In a successful organization, everything you source is sourced to add value to the products and services you offer the end customer. Everything. No exceptions. Legal spend? Services to protect your IP and ensure you can offer …

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