mpotepa

Feb 9, 2012

The Future Role of the Chief Procurement Officer

I had an interesting discussion with Stephen Hall from the Procurement Leaders Group this morning. Stephen is putting together a feature for Procurement Leaders Magazine on ‘The End of the…

Feb 1, 2012

P&G slashes marketers in lieu of free social media

A recent article in business insider portends bad news for marketing folks.  Procter and Gamble’s prodigious CEO, Robert McDonald, announced that he is going to lay off 1600 marketing people…

Feb 1, 2012

Applying supply chain thinking to the supply chain talent problem

In a recent white paper published in October 2010, Jim Rice from MIT argues that there is a potential crisis for supply chain talent brewing.  A speaker from a large…

Jan 27, 2012

The Lowly UNSPSC Is Moving up in the Supply Chain World!

The inauspicious UNSPSC (United Nations) code began as a historical marriage between the UN code set and a code set with a commercial concern (Dunn & Bradstreet).  The focus initially…

Jan 27, 2012

Is Apple really stepping up to deal with human rights violations in the supply chain?

An article written today by Ben Cook quotes a recent email by Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO: “Every year we inspect more factories, raising the bar for our partners and going…

Jan 26, 2012

The Secret Sauce of AMR's Top 25 Supply Chain Ranking

2011 marks the seventh year of AMR’s  annual Supply Chain Top 25 report. The goal of AMR’s research has always been to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and…

Jan 22, 2012

Commentary on Human Rights and Sustainable Supply Chains at Apple

Today’s article in the New York Times on Apple’s outsourcing of its global supply chain to Asia provides yet more insights into what has been a very secretive supply chain…

Jan 20, 2012

Reacting to Disruptions: The real test for belonging to the "world class supply chain" club?

Many people are quick to point to the AMR Top 25 supply chains as the benchmark for supply chain excellence. In my mind, the real test of how “world-class” a…

Jan 18, 2012

Apple's Labor and Human Rights Nightmare: Transparency is the Right Thing to Do

For several years, we have been extolling the importance of Labor and Human Rights violations as a critical component of sustainable supply chains. In a previous post, we also identified…

Jan 15, 2012

Are you really a customer's of choice?

Within the context of the current financial crisis, the importance of sustaining critical supply chain relationships has received more attention than ever. Despite the return to a “buyer’s market” in…