Strategic Sourcing

Dec 17, 2017

SCRC Innovation and Social Responsibility Supply Index: A Critical Input to “Drucker Management Top 250 List”

Research by NC State Poole College Professor Robert Handfield, director of the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative based Poole College, and Yung-Yun Huang, a recent graduate of North Carolina State University’s interdisciplinary… 

Sep 18, 2017

Procurement Must Contribute to Competitiveness to Become Relevant!

Procurement is always thinking about cost savings, year over year.  But is this really a true measure of competitiveness? So procurement will have a budgeted amount for, say 4.5 cents… 

Sep 15, 2017

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… 

Apr 29, 2017

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… 

Oct 12, 2016

A "Swiss Army Knife" of Supply Chain Talent Requirements: Views from a Former Wolfpack Student

Stuart William was in one of my former MBA classes at NC State in 2008, and graduated into one of the worst economies ever in May of 2009. Upon graduation, there… 

Oct 8, 2016

It's About Time for a new "World Class Supply Chain" Paradigm

As a young assistant professor at Michigan State University in 1992, I was part of a group called the Global Procurement Benchmarking Initiative. This initiative benchmarked over 300 global companies,… 

Sep 14, 2016

Outsourcing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Lessons from Nortel Networks

Jeff Townley, former Chief Procurement Officer at Nortel Networks, provided some fantastic insights in my MBA class this evening.  In so doing, he shared some great insights about “Outsourcing:  The… 

Aug 23, 2016

Sustainable Procurement Finally Getting Its Own Standard

A new post discussed the development of a sustainable procurement standard developed by the International Standards Organization.  ISO 20400, Sustainable procurement – Guidance, has just reached a second draft international standard… 

Aug 6, 2016

MBA Supply Management Class Prepares Exciting New Set of Projects for Fall 2016

It is that time of year again, and the SCRC team is getting ready to prepare for a new semester starting the week of August 15th!  As always, we have… 

Apr 19, 2016

The Do's and Don'ts of Deal Making and Contract Management

I had an opportunity to sit in on the second day of the Sourcing Industry Group meeting in Orlando today.  Ed Hansen from the law firm of Morgan Lewis presented…