Vendor Management
The games played by game theorist don’t exist in the real world. The assumption is that each player is motivated solely by their stated payoffs whereas in real life we are motivated to do more than maximise our material rewards. Sometimes we are [...]
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Over the next few weeks, I’m going to change the thrust of this blog to discuss my hobby, Incentive Practice and Theory, rather than discussing the day-to-day practical issues facing procurement managers
The change is prompted by the fact that, since I’ve gone in-house as a procurement manager, I’ve been largely unable to write anything out [...]
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Procurement literature is filled with helpful tips on generating reports to convince C-level executives of the relevance of procurement. Whilst it’s important to feel relevant, a more critical use of this information is to ensure that your procurement team can see that it’s making progress toward some clearly defined objectives.
Savings is of course the big [...]
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Years ago, during a silent argument with my girlfriend, I asked her what she was thinking. Her response was that if I really cared about her, I would know what she was thinking. Stunned into silence by this response, I said nothing and the relationship withered and died.
Sounds silly now, looking back on it, but [...]
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Last week, Michael Lamoureux asked Dave Stephens, Dave Bush, Jason Busch, Tim Minahan and I to post on the future of sourcing. I’ve found their responses fascinating and informative. I’m regularly astonished at the insights I get from this group of guys (Why no girls?). I’m going to focus on the future of sourcing as [...]
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I had a discussion last week with another sourcing specialist about whether it was better to reduce tender submissions to a weighted result out of 10 or to a dollar figure. My preference is to work with my clients to assign a dollar figure to intangibles such as risk of moving from the incumbent to [...]
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A typical spend reduction initiative starts by convincing your C-Level executives to mandate the consolidation of spend throughout your company. Through such consolidation, you ensure your suppliers can reduce their margins yet still make enough to service the payments on their salespeople’s Beemers.
If you cannot consolidate your spend, you must find other ways to convince [...]
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I’ve been given the all-clear at work and I’m back on the air!
I’m really loving the new role. It’s the first time I’ve been officially inside an organisation rather than advising from the outside. My major concern with taking the role was that I wouldn’t be able to adjust to the sustained focus on one [...]
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Thanks to everyone who’s been asking where the h**l I’ve been. Matthew’s latest post titled “The day the blog died” has finally spurred me into action.
I’ve taken a new job as the head of procurement for an investment bank and I’m currently working my way through the approvals process for corporate communications. Understandably, disclosure risks [...]
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Debbie Wilson, author of Cool Tools for Purchasing, declares 2006 to be the "Year of the Blog". For those of you not familiar with her site, Debbie, amongst other things, publishes periodic commentary on procurement issues. Her opinions are poignant and I read her stuff as soon as it hits my in-box. Jason Busch calls [...]
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