Procure IQ

I was a little annoyed with the chosen focus of a recent article by Mr. Michael G. Jacobides and very annoyed with the terminology chosen in Strategy Tools for a Shifting Landscape (subscription required), a recent article in the Harvard Business Review. While I agree that some companies need to reinvent the way they develop strategy, I’m not sure that strategy should be “defined” by narrative plots, subplots, and characters and definitely convinced that the last thing we want defining corporate strategy is a “playscript”.Business is, well, business. Not playtime. And while it shouldn’t be duller than …

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A recent post over on the Harvard Business Review Blogs pointed out Three Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year based upon eight characteristics of top performers and four characteristics of under-achievers identified by Melissa Raffoni of Raffoni Ceo Consulting and author of Managing Time in the HBR Pocket Mentor Series. According to Raffoni, who identified the following eight characteristics of top performers: they set clear measurable goals they seek feedback they communicate thoughtfully they act thoughtfully they are decisive they have …

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Besides the fact that you’re probably as fed up as I am at the ridiculous compensation packages that many Executives are getting these days despite the fact that they are on their way out the door having just tanked the company, there’s also the fact that their focus on short term gain is hurting the company and your ability to do your job. You want to switch to sustainable sources of supply, because you know that the long term savings (as energy, water, and carbon costs are all poised to go through the roof) will dwarf any short term …

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In addition to the presentation of 18 theses around the continued scarcity of energy resources, Volume 1 of the Transportation & Logistics 2030 report on how supply chains will evolve in an energy-constrained, low-carbon world by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Supply Chain Management Institute also identified some (emerging) opportunities for transportation and logistics operations that are worth close scrutiny by any provider looking to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.The report provided opportunities in four areas: Products & Services Finance & Accounting Processes & Organization Strategy & Policy Today, we’re going to overview the process, organization, strategy, and policy …

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As per this recent article in Industry Week on planning an effective policy deployment process, there is a difference between a strategic plan and strategy deployment. While a strategic plan is a three- to five-year vision of where you want an organization to be, strategy deployment is the one-year plan or process instituted to break down that vision into short-term goals that can be assigned, measured, provided with resources, and revisited to determine progress. While short, it was an important article because many supply chain process improvements fail due to poor execution, …

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As you know, I’ve been on my dumb company kick ever since the recession started as nothing disgusts me more than good companies flushing themselves down the toilet from a seeming inability to stand out from the crowd and do the right the thing. It’s something I still can’t fathom, despite my best attempts, but after reading this recent blog post over on Harvard Business by David Silverman on How Successful CEOs Respond to Failure, I may have found another answer. They’re afraid to fail. And that’s just stupid. Everyone fails. Even the doctor. The …

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Wow! This recession isn’t over yet and CNN Money is already telling us to prepare for the next recession! Considering that boom-and-bust cycles have been happening faster and faster, it’s good advice, but it’s still a bit of a downer. I agree with Moore (in the contained video interview) that a new economic order is likely needed, but it’s not going to happen any time soon, so we have to optimize against what we have. So how do you prepare for the next recession? The article offers three primary pieces of advice: Make friends …

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This fall, Strategy + Business, with the help of Booz & Co., got Inside the Kraft Foods Transformation and talked with level top leaders about their three-year turnaround and their campaign to reorganize for growth. It was a good article, but the best part was the six keys factors to a successful reorganization because not only are these themes common to Kraft, but they are common to most of the studies I’ve read regarding transformations in the leaders in the Food & Beverage and Consumer Packaged Goods industries. Since they definitely deserve to be repeated, I’m repeating them. …

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Share This on Linked In A recent press release from the Conference Board announced the results of the fifth annual survey on offshoring trends that was done in conjunction with the Duke Offshoring Research Network. The survey found that more than 50% of companies had a corporate offshoring strategy last year, up [...]

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Share This on Linked In In a recent edition of the Harvard Business Review, an article on What Only the CEO Can Do outlined the four tasks of the CEO who has to link the outside to the inside. They were: Defining the Meaningful OutsideWhich stakeholders matter most? [...]

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