Customer Relationship Management
As Inventories and Capacity Expansion Grew Too Quickly in 2022, Customers are Forcing Suppliers to Bear the Brunt of Optimistic Forecasts
In today’s Wall Street Journal, I was interviewed regarding a case that was just filed against Amazon by a large robotics , claiming that the e-commerce giant backed away from promises made early in the Covid-19 pandemic to support the […]
What does”Supplier Relationship Management” really mean?
In a report I worked on in 2013, I conducted interviews conducted with 25 chief procurement officers (CPOs) on one of the most important drivers of value creation and resilience that is often overlooked: harnessing the power of innovation […]
Maybe its time for consumers to consume less…Market Satiation as a new supply chain strategy
The current set of supply chain disruptions is being set off by a combination of COVID cases and energy disruptions in manufacturing hubs around the world, labor shortages, lack of capital infrastructure investment, misaligned transportation resources (a lack of containers, […]
Apple Procurement Leader Hails from NC State
Today’s WSJ front page shares the important role of one of Apple’s top senior executives who runs much of the procurement and supply chain activity for Apple – Tony Blevins. Mr. Blevins studied industrial engineering at North Carolina State, and […]
SCRC Meeting: Closing the Gap Between Marketing and Procurement
Our upcoming SCRC meeting on April 25 will explore a topic that has been top of mind for me and several other people for some time. To give you a clue as to what this is about, consider the typical […]
Excess and Obsolete Inventory: You’re All Responsible for It!
The Supply Chain Resource Cooperative held its first ever “Executive Roundtable on Excess and Obsolete Inventory” on the NC State campus on October 25, 2017. The event was attended by 25 executives from a variety of different industries and backgrounds. […]
Sales Can Use RACI Charts to Understand Procurement… and vice versa!
RACI Charts have been around for years, yet are often discounted. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed – which refers to the relative governance structure that exists in an organizational relationship. Although RACI “charts” are often viewed as […]
Can Sales and Procurement Ever be BFF's?
The relationship between sales and procurement has always been a contentious one, and the idea of a friendship evolving between the two functions is laughable in the minds of many managers I’ve met with. The issue at the core of […]
Hilarious Sourcing Videos
I had an opportunity to watch some hilarious sourcing videos recently that I discovered on a sourcing blog by Citro Strategy. The three scenarios depict the actions of “hardball negotiating” procurement approaches, that are translated into negotiation scenarios that individuals in the […]
How does procurement evaluate outsource providers?
In the RFQ process, procurement should ideally be transparent about answering this question. Too often, however, the sales team at suppliers providing the bid have to “guess” at what they think will be important. The Request for Quote process, if […]