|  | | | Procurement best practices, supply management strategies, and overall leadership techniques for transforming a company and keeping it vibrant and resilient. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information. Subject to its Terms of Use |
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| | | I’ve just returned to my Pittsburgh office, after attending and presenting two workshops at the 93rd Annual ISM Conference, held this year in St. Louis, Missouri.
A few impressions of my own, melded with comments from fellow attendees:
Attendance was lighter than last year&rsquo… | |
| | | What might be the return on investment for your annual Supplier Recognition activities?
Benefits typically fall into two categories:
– Further performance improvements from the premier suppliers that you recognized
– Improvements from suppliers who want to become… | |
| | | For those of you who plan to attend next week’s ISM Conference in St. Louis, I’ll be presenting two topics:
“The Gold Medal: Transforming Supply Management into a World-Class Driver of Corporate Performance” – Monday, May 5 at 9:00 am
“Speak Like… | |
| | | Are you ready for a supplier recognition event at your company? You are probably ready if:
You have fairly good data on supplier performance
You have agreement on the selection criteria
You have a view that suppliers are part of the solution
Your corporate culture is one w… | |
| | | A prerequisite for having a successful supplier recognition program is to have clearly defined roles. The key players are the Procurement Council, Selection Committee, Nominators, and Executives.
The Procurement Council establishes expectations and policy, appoints members of a Selection Committee,… | |
| | | Today’s guest blogger is James Baehr, who heads up the IT Strategic Sourcing practice at Greybeard Advisors LLC. Jim has had management roles in IT sales, IT operations, and IT procurement at major firms, before joining Greybeard. Jim can be reached at: Baehr@GreybeardAdvisors.com
How effecti… | |
| | | On occasion, I’ll be inviting knowledgeable experts to cover various topics relating to their subject matter expertise. Today’s guest blogger is James Baehr, who heads up the IT Strategic Sourcing practice at Greybeard Advisors LLC. Jim has had management roles in IT sales, IT operations… | |
| | | What are the reasons in favor of Supplier Recognition (an annual event in which your “best of the best” suppliers are publicly acknowledged and thanked, often followed by a press release naming those top suppliers)?
There are several:
· … | |
| | | Last year I was speaking with the acting head of procurement at a fairly sizeable company (revenues greater than $1 billion). He mentioned that his former CPO, who left the company after less than 18 months, had been involved with an SRM consulting project at their company. He identified the consult… | |
| | | Suppliers who truly perform well deserve to be rewarded and publicly recognized. Shocked? You shouldn’t be.
How you involve your suppliers in achieving your corporate objectives is a critical philosophical – and practical – choice. “Beating up suppliers” is a short-ter… | |
| | | As a convenience to readers, here is an Index of topics covered to date in this column since its inception in late September, 2007.
September, 2007:
The Challenge (in Supply Management)
Welcome to Transformation Leadership - I (creating awareness and a roadmap)
October, 2007:
Welcome to… | |
| | | If you adhere to a genuine, rigorous strategic sourcing process, and a negotiations management process that is equally rigorous - and integrated with your sourcing methodology - you’ve probably noticed one thing: there is a lot of information to be organized and evaluated before you commence t… | |
| | | Last year, I had the opportunity to speak at the ISM annual conference in Las Vegas. The topic was World-Class Negotiations Management: Best Practices, Tools and Future Directions.
Those of you who speak publicly know the drill. You try to arrive at the assigned presentation room well in advance, t… | |
| | | One SCMR reader asked that we comment on the notion that supply-chain disintermediation has become a non-issue.
First, a definition. Wikipedia defines “disintermediation” as “the removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: i.e. cutting out the middleman. Instead of going through … | |
| | | It is tempting to view supplier risk management as primarily a defensive activity: trying to avoid the negative outcomes that create the damaging headlines and the anxious customers. While it certainly has that role, it should also be viewed as a pro-active activity that closely relates to supplier … | |
| | | Strategic supply management means, among other things, taking a pro-active role in the comprehensive identification of risk, and ongoing risk management.
Is measuring the incoming quality of your supplier’s product, before you put it into your manufacturing process, sufficient? No. If t… | |
| | | Last Friday, a Wall Street Journal article highlighted actions being taken by the U.S. Congress to improve the safety of children’s products. Click here for a complete version of the original article.
Among other points, the article made an issue of the potential conflict that might arise bec… | |
| | | There is a brand new supply management book that is worth your attention. Spend Analysis: The Window into Strategic Sourcing by K. Pandit and H. Marmanis, has just been published by J. Ross Publishing, and is available at major booksellers, including Amazon.com. Let me tell you why I think this book… | |
| | | An essential element in building an organization of leaders, at all levels, is to provide feedback on leadership behavior and practices. The systematic practice of gathering feedback from direct reports, colleagues, and superiors – so-called “360-degree feedback” – is invalua… | |
| | | One of the very best books on the subject of leadership and management is The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. If you have not read it, do so. It is a classic.
The authors outline and elaborate on a five-stage process (five key practices) as shown in the Figure.
F… | |
| | | In late January, a reader posted his concern about his Chief Procurement Officer. Here is what he or she wrote:
“My CPO does not lead the Procurement Council and only participates when asked to present a topic. His claim is that he does not want to inhibit the discussion or cause memb… | |
| | | I recall one challenging sourcing effort, years ago, where the supplier sales rep was arrogant and smug when dealing with the sourcing team. And he had reason to be over-confident – he had contacts throughout the customer’s organization: from the corporate office to plant locations, from… | |
| | | Are you frustrated with suppliers who do end runs around your sourcing teams?
Do you wish senior management would stop talking with suppliers, or at least ask you for input on what to say?
Does your supplier always seem to know more about what is happening at your company than you … | |
| | | Saturday’s Wall Street Journal had a front page article that comedian Rodney Dangerfield would be proud of. And, this particular story highlights the continuing challenge facing the supply management profession in “getting respect.”
Titled “Analyze This: Hoaxer Haunt… | |
| | | For those of you who want to read some of the original stories about tainted toys and tainted toothpaste (mentioned in the prior posting), here are the links:
NY Times article on Dollar Plus and tainted toothpaste
USA Today Article on Mattel and lead tainted toys
Supplier risk management is… | |
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