Monthly Archives: February 2012
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend ISM Orange County’s monthly dinner meeting earlier. Walt Sindewald, owner and principal consultant for Competitive Edge Procurement, spoke about how procurement can strategically attack indirect spend, which is anything not included on a bill of materials such as office supplies, MRO, marketing, print, telecom, software, and digital equipment. Services such as landscaping, janitorial, security, IT, and consulting can also be part of indirect spend. The topic resonated well with the southern … More
Ron Bedwell from KMS Systems spoke with me last week about his opinion on the key drivers for achieving success. KMS Systems is a leading provider of industrial material handling equipment solutions and Ron has been there for more than 15 years. “There’s a lot of things you have to do to be successful in any given situation, “ Ron said. “But there are a couple of things that you should always do no matter what you’re working on. One … More
The proposed takeover by Glencore of Xstrata is going to present global commodity buyers with some challenges. The combined group will become a formidable player, creating an entity with a value of $90 billion and profits in excess of $16 billion. The group will become not just the world’s biggest exporter of coal for power plants (1/3 of the world’s seaborne thermal coal), and the largest producer of zinc, but also a significant player in commodities such as copper and … More
In a recent Iasta Insights poll, 36% of respondents said the biggest team resolution for 2012 is improving cross-functional collaboration. Nearly 28% of respondents said enhancing stakeholder relationships and alignment was the top initiative for 2012. Does your 2012 sourcing resolution list include similar goals? If so, register for Procurement Leader’s Webcast with featuring Matt McCarrick of Iasta and Stijn van Els of Royal Dutch Shell, “Achieving Greater Value through Better Alignment with the Business” on February 28, 2012 at … More
Procurement transformation is often the greatest single driver of sustainable and implementable savings for companies. Yet these programs, by their very nature, often can disrupt aspects of business activity while changing procurement’s overall role and structure under the broader functional and enterprise umbrella. No company should enter a procurement transformation without realizing that such programs will nearly always result in: material turnover of key staff potential turf battles with line of business holders ongoing technology and process change the potential … More
“Come what may, all bad fortune is to be conquered by endurance,” Joey Barton, English footballer turned Twitter prophet, quotes the ancient poet Virgil. As Barton, and Virgil before him, reminds us: it takes hard work to win results. The balanced scorecard for sourcing promises a lot – to determine, measure and manage a set of predictable outcomes. But, like most treasure, it is the thing of whispers. There’s actually not much of a map to it, and only few … More
In Part 1, I ended with the statement that procurement “errors” affect the market capitalization, the competitiveness and the well-thought out plans for the business and, that price risk can affect any of the aforementioned. It is therefore imperative for organizations to have a clearly articulated and well-defined plan for (price) risk management. This blog will highlight the traditional approaches to hedging and suggest that organizations ask themselves a range of questions when developing their hedging strategy. Traditional approaches to … More
Every region of the world experienced significant outsourcing developments in 2011. The TPI Momentum 2011 Market Trends & Insights Geography Report found that global developments are increasingly connected. The natural and nuclear disasters in Japan, political upheaval from the Arab Spring in the Middle East and Africa and the continuing debt drama throughout the euro zone all impacted outsourcing decision-making far beyond those regions. Here are the Top 5 highlights from the report: The continental divide is growing. In 2010, … More
At month end, many families struggle with too many bills and not enough cash. What to do? Financial planners suggest that families start a log of all expenses so that at the end of the month they can see where the cash went. Families that do that find opportunities to cut back. “I didn’t realize I spent that much at Starbucks” is a typical revelation. Businesses face the same situation; cash seems to disappear: Financial statements show expense categories, but … More
It’s Super Bowl week here in Indianapolis. More than 11,000 volunteers are prepared to make Super Bowl XLVI an amazing experience for the fans, tourists and locals. Just today I heard that the NFL experience attracted a record 42,000+ visitors on Saturday. And as the teams are arriving Monday, it comes to mind how making the Super Bowl is a huge victory for any football team; think of it like accomplishing the executive mandate of the sourcing world. So, what … More
