Strategic Sourcing

Aug 1, 2015

Needed: An Analytics Platform to Support the New Face of Procurement Transformation

As organizations continue to discuss the notion of procurement value transformation, there is a noticeable gap between the stated intentions of organizations to pursue value, and their actions as they… 

Jul 17, 2015

A Tale of Two Procurement Books: Cox's Sourcing Portfolio Analysis (Cox) & Strategic Sourcing in the New Economy (Keith et al.)

A new face of procurement is emerging which is recognizing that a new set of value drivers must be developed in the face of massive environmental changes. Some of the… 

Jul 14, 2015

Andrew Cox's "Sourcing Portfolio Analysis": More of the Same

Against the many new articles and books being produced on the changing face of procurement and the importance of value creation and collaboration, Andrew Cox’s new book “Sourcing Portfolio Analysis” came… 

Jun 30, 2015

The State of Strategic Supply Management in the Canadian Oil Industry

I visited Calgary, Alberta this week, and found it to be an odd environment indeed! Oil has leveled off at $60/bbl, major companies have all gone through major budget cuts, have cut headcount… 

Jun 4, 2015

Newly minted MBA from NC State heads off to Apple's Supply Chain Organization

One of my recent students from last year, Gaurav Chhabra, just graduated this semester, and landed a job in Apple’s supply chain organization.  I had a chance to catch up with Guarav… 

Apr 10, 2015

Vendor Profiling Survey Now Open

A group of my MBA students are working on a project benchmarking vendor profiling approaches.  If you’re interested in this topic, be sure to take the survey. The goal of… 

Apr 10, 2015

Post Award Contract Management with $40 Oil: Insights from Big Oil

I had the opportunity to host a good colleague of mine  in my supply chain relationships class this week.  We worked together years ago to help define the a baseline framework… 

Feb 25, 2015

Biogen Idec designs the innovation supply chain

Joydeep Ganguly from Biogen Idec spoke in my Supply Chain Relationships class last week, and shared his insights on how Biogen’s supply chain evolved.  Since graduating from the NC State Jenkins… 

Feb 19, 2015

The Role of Supply Management at Hilton Worldwide

I was able to listen to Christopher Nassetta, the CEO of HIlton Worldwide, speak to his team of global supply managers in MacLean Virginia this morning. Chris spoke about a… 

Feb 10, 2015

Spend Analytics in the Federal Acquisition Sector

Acquisition in the federal government has been identified as a major source of potential savings in the future, as in the private sector, but a recent set of workshops and…