Quick fire topical postings on purchasing and supply chain issues from independent expert commentators and the Supply Management editorial team.
Buyers in the construction industry are not exactly revered for their expertise in supplier relationship.
The sector, still stuck like glue to its recessionary depths, has been the setting for some ugly tactics over the past two years. The most potent being the universal slashing of supplier prices by some of the UK’s biggest housebuilders. (more…)
If you’re in China, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Russia or one of 11 other countries, you might be enjoying a day off because International Women’s Day is an official holiday where you are.
Thousands of events are being held across the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements – and in places where it’s a national vacation, the tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends and colleagues with flowers and small gifts. (more…)
In this article CPOs and senior supply chain experts from 15 sectors slug it out giving the reasons why their industry is the best at developing procurement talent.
“Utilities is second to none,” says one. “Oil and gas is a sector that matters,” posits another. (more…)
I recently came across a theory developed by the US economist and marketing expert Theodore Levitt (credited with, among other things, coining the term “globalisation”).
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill,” he is said to have said. “They want a quarter-inch hole.” (more…)
Conversation over dinner last night turned to restaurants, perhaps unsurprising given I was in a restaurant, having dinner with a visiting relative who happens to be a restaurateur.
Apparently, as we were chatting over our kofte kebabs (it was a Turkish establishment) other foodies and journalists were celebrating the launch of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) in another London eatery. Restaurants that can prove their sustainable credentials can now become SRA-accredited, meaning they can display a “We’re at the table” sticker in their window to show customers they care about sustainability. (more…)
Last week we allowed your colleagues in sales a bit of a whine.
A survey shown to SM reveals that sales people feel they are “treated like commodities” by buyers. They say they’re defined purely on cost in a basket of similar goods. (more…)
Britain’s got talent. That, at least, is the claim made by an unending stream of TV shows that offer a few moments of fame to some unlikely showbiz wannabes. To judge by this garish cavalcade of Saturday night “entertainment”, British talent involves derivative yodelling to over-elaborate backing tracks, accompanied by dazzling lighting effects, intense grimacing and grinning. (more…)
In the words of the author Douglas Adams: “Slowly, however, the implications of the idea began to be understood. To begin with it had been too stark, too crazy, too much like what the man in the street would have said ‘Oh yes, I could have told you that’ to. Then some phrases like ‘Interactive Subjectivity Frameworks’ were invented, and everybody was able to relax and get on with it.”
Our job in procurement is about improving the quality, cost, delivery and service that our organisations offer their customers, by working with suppliers. It can become complicated: but is often simple. We get the bits in. (more…)
We’ve all been there: sat in the dullest meeting, concentration long since disappeared. Maybe you’ll be driven to texting your colleague across the room expressing your desire to be elsewhere.
Councillors in Cornwall, however, decided to go much more public with their boredom. During a meeting they used Twitter to tell the world how they felt, along the lines of “high level of accidental sexual innuendo in the council today”, “naughty boy” and “she said phones must be switched off (I love that we’re completely ignoring that instruction)”. (more…)
Buyers are often told to use their purchasing power to benefit the local community.
It’s a message Highland Council has heard loud and clear, and taken action on. (more…)
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