Relationships

Dec 23, 2022  |  Articles

“With a Little Help from My Friends”: A Path Towards Data Visibility and Sustainable Contracting

A Guest Blog by Rajinder Bhandal Ph.D., University of Leeds Have you heard of the concept of sustainable contracting in the context of supply ecosystems? The World Commerce and Contracting Foundation hosted a recent online Academic Symposium on this topic, […]

Sep 6, 2020  |  Articles

Partnership is More Important than Digital Innovation when it comes to Complex Construction Projects

Across all industries, construction management has perhaps been the slowest to adopt digital technologies, and many opportunities exist to drive out inefficiencies.   Due to the multi-stakeholder and shifting nature of roles and responsibilities over the life of construction projects, numerous […]

Dec 8, 2019  |  Articles

SCRC Meeting – Tom Linton’s “Supply Chain Eight” and Golden Winged Warblers : Questions Every New CSCO Should Ask Their CEO

Our 40th Bi-Annual Supply Chain Resource Cooperative meeting was a great success, culminating with the student gallery walk, featuring 27 undergraduate and MBA supply chain projects.  The meeting was attended by over 80 executives, as well as numerous students and […]

Oct 22, 2019  |  Articles

State of Flux: An Update on the Current State of Supplier Relationship Management

I had the opportunity to speak at the annual SRM Summit coordinated by State of Flux, led by their leader Alan Day.  Alan spoke on insights from their annual SRM “book”, which included survey results on the current state of […]

Apr 27, 2019  |  Articles

Closing the Gap Between Buyers and Sellers: “Everything is Changed, Nothing is Different”

We hosted an extremely successful set of speakers at our SCRC meeting this past week.  One of my core beliefs, that I’ve espoused over the 30 years that I’ve been working in this field, is that working together for mutually […]

Sep 5, 2018  |  Articles

You Can’t Buy Digital Transformation “Off the Shelf”…(And Expect Results)

Companies everywhere are setting aside budgets for investment in upgrading their analytics capabilities.  Very often, this involves investments in cloud-based computing, data warehouses, artificial intelligence, business intelligence dashboards, and multiple other forms of software and hardware investments.  But the truth […]

Jul 16, 2018  |  Articles

Pharmaceutical offshoring makes recalls more costly with more quality headaches

I spent some time working on a study of how offshoring impacts quality issues, specifically product recalls, with a number of researchers at the University of Palermo, led by Manfredi Bruccoleri.  Our research led to some very interesting findings on […]

Jun 21, 2018  |  Articles

The Risks and Benefits of Socializing with Suppliers

I had a chance to meet with a group of supply chain executives at the University of Calgary this week, which included a discussion by Ken Rawson.  Ken has over 30 years of experience working in supply management, first with […]

May 17, 2018  |  Articles

Master Data System Enables Quick Wins Through Component Standardization

Having a robust master part and master supplier list can yield many low hanging fruit for organizations in the early stages of their procurement transformation.  Many of these opportunities can be driven by looking at redundant part numbers, contracts that […]

Apr 28, 2018  |  Articles

SCRC Executive Panel Discussion: “Relational Contracting in an Uncertain Ecosystem”

A panel of industry practitioners offered their views on how market trends and technologies are impacting contract management and relational contracting at the latest SCRC meeting on April 19.  Thank you to our guest writer, Kirsten Gallagher, from the Global […]