Supply chain Relationships

Jul 13, 2017

Writing Good Contracts Matters a LOT!

I have been having a lot of interesting discussions recently with both procurement and legal executives who are increasingly concerned with the state of their contract management processes.  This is… 

Jun 2, 2017

Managing Supply Chain Relationships with German Managers

Germany companies are becoming more commonplace in not just automotive supply chains (BMW, Bosch, Daimler), but in chemicals (BASF), pharmaceuticals (Bayer), industrial manufacturing (Siemens), and software (SAP).  There are a… 

May 5, 2017

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… 

Mar 17, 2017

Procurement Leaders Blog Post: Cross-Functional Teaming is Easier Said Then Done

Continuing my reporting of the Procurement Leaders meeting in Miami, I sat in on a very interesting session that included three professionals from very different walks of life: Captain Harry… 

Mar 16, 2017

Procurement Leaders '17: Supplier enabled innovation is a foundation for procurement's strategic repositioning

I had the opportunity to sit in on a number of sessions at Procurement Leaders American Congress 2017 in Miami this week.  Despite the snowstorms that prevented many from making… 

Feb 23, 2017

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… 

Feb 12, 2017

Best Practice: Creating a Governance Mechanism for Analytical Learning in Organizations

I recently interviewed a large semiconductor company that developed a cross-enterprise initiative to drive analytical learning across its entire supply chain. The company established a supply chain IT organization that reports… 

Jan 29, 2017

Why do high quality suppliers pass over big RFQ/RFPs?

In a recent discussion, a large supplier of services shred that they fail to respond to almost 50% of every RFP that comes their way!  This insight was very surprising to… 

Jan 24, 2017

Getting Sales and Procurement onto the Same Team

The relationship between sales and procurement has always been a contentious one. The issue at the core of this tension is the concept of value recognition. Sales account managers accuse… 

Dec 14, 2016

Day 3: Lenovo Goes About Creating the End to End Transparent Supply Chain

On the third day the team visited the Lenovo “Green Data Center”, and learned of how Lenovo is working to create their “converged” network servers that are on the leading…