Archive for the 'Supply Management' Category

Increasing Liquidity Without Soaking Suppliers

Clearly in this business economy cash is not only King, it’s pocket Kings with the flop on the way (for you WSOP fans!). To protect their businesses and ensure sufficient cash flow in this tight credit environment, organizations are doing everything they can to hold on to the cash they have and free up even […]

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“Hero Culture” is no way to manage risk

The credit crisis is the supply chain risk getting most of the attention these days. But in the recent online Town Hall forum, IACCM President & CEO Tim Cummins, pointed out another risky behavior that many companies engage in. Tim said a “hero culture”, where saving the company from disaster in the nick of time, […]

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Yahoo! CPO Interview: Ron Carcamo Changes Things Up

This quarter’s SupplyWatch report hit the virtual shelves Friday (print edition will go out to subscribers shortly). In addition to the Core Category Details, this issue includes an interview with Yahoo! CPO Ron Carcamo, a man who was brought into the company 18 months ago to get their spend under control and chart a course […]

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PurchSearch: Scouring the Internet for Procurement Gold

I recently laid out my thoughts how Web 3.0 will change sourcing and procurement by increasing the volume of information about buyers and suppliers. B the time that evolution occurs, the internet itself will be massive. Actually…what am I saying…it already is massive and that’s why everyone relies so heavily on Google to index everything.
But […]

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Is Renegotiating During a Recession Ethical?

A member of the Buyer & Supplier Contracts Group on LinkedIn recently posted a very interesting question to the community:
In this Volatile market scenario is it ethical to renegotiate the existing contracts? Is this the only way to survive in the business?
In the current economic and credit climate, I’m sure a lot of companies are […]

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The Four Core Aspects of Category Assessment

Last week, I posted on best practices for category assessment. While that advice should walk you through executing on categories where there are savings opportunities, I think it’s a good idea to take a step back and look at exactly how you should identify those categories. After all, it’s not as though the decision […]

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Surging Dollar’s Impact on Steel Prices

It’s that time of the quarter again when I get a chance to take a step back, gather my thoughts and scour through the data as I write the metals category article for SupplyWatch. As you can guess…there’s a LOT to talk about this quarter. Plummeting commodity prices, a global credit crisis and an underlying […]

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Marketing sees “Green”, Procurement sees “Cost Savings”

Ryan Walicki of National City Bank leads a procurement team with some very aggressive savings goals. With their focus on indirect spend (a bank, after all, can’t print money), they’re tasked with a 500% ROI on their efforts this year and a whopping 700% next year!
Despite those massive goals, procurement has actually taken a lead […]

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Category Assessment Best Practices

Dropping commodity prices have buyers salivating at the prospect of saving some money, especially in the face of top line stagnation. But where do you start? What categories are ripe for the picking vs others that are either a lower priority or best left alone?
Ultimately the goal is build a prioritized sourcing pipeline that meets […]

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Is Indonesia “the next (insert favorite LCCS nation here)”?

When asked for his thoughts on emerging low-cost country sourcing (LCCS) opportunities during an online Town Hall forum last week, Larry Welch cited an unusual contender; Indonesia. Welch, the former VP of Indirect and Services Procurement at Hewlett Packard, said Indonesia is making strides towards becoming a regional and global player. It was an intriguing […]

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