We’re going back to basics with this post. I meet non-procurement specialists with procurement responsibilities that just need a ‘nudge’. SM readers should find this list helpful when advising their non-procurement’ colleagues. To set up and manage supplier (vendor or contractor) engagements is tough for some people who are outside procurement (which is why they need us) – especially because some suppliers are much better at bidding than they are at delivering the contract.
How do they get the core information they need to ensure a successful supplier engagement? Here’s a simple but incredibly effective checklist I recommend to our clients. These 10 simple questions will improve your colleagues’ approach to supplier engagements. Misaligned expectations are the number one cause of commercial disputes. (more…)
In every facet of our life, technology is present. So it should come as no surprise that technology is present in the fulfillment industry and is playing a massive part.
Something as staid as the warehouse has been streamlined and revolutionised as a result of technology making it more proficient and organised. Warehouses must be far more efficient because online shopping has made the fulfillment industry more relevant. A company such as Amazon ships millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise every day, which would never have happened before the internet age. (more…)
Want to get your business to consider sustainability, but don’t know how? Try talking to them about risk.
That’s the advice of Professor Andrew Douglas from the University of the West of England. Addressing buyers at the Sustainable Purchasing & Supply Summit in London last month as he helped launch the CIPS Sustainability Index, Douglas said people now see the sustainability agenda as a way of managing risk. (more…)
As Sainsbury’s marketing director, I am responsible for a wide remit, so the need for a clear set of performance measures across the category is paramount. We all know one of these measures will be the ‘ugly duckling’ – value. But however ugly this duckling may be, its place in the marketing function is vital.
To achieve commercial success in this area, we needed to look not only at the structure of the procurement relationship required to deliver value, but crucially, what skill set was required to deliver on tough challenges in marketing. (more…)
If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,” said American economist Herbert Stein. That, in a way, is all you need to know about sustainability. If something – a business practice, relationship or raw material that is in limited supply – cannot last, eventually it won’t.
Part of the problem with the discussion about sustainability in business is that the word has been hijacked or twisted by a range of people (where have we heard that one before?). So some might suggest that sustainability is merely something to do with energy use, or pollution, or recycling paper. (more…)
You don’t have to look far to see the reputational damage caused by poor supplier decisions.
According to recent figures by the consumer-insight network Kantar, nearly half of us changed our shopping habits following the horse meat scandal. Following this, Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke pledged to increase orders of UK-sourced meat from 20 per cent to 90 per cent and ordered a review of how the company’s relationships with suppliers could be made more “transparent and collaborative”. (more…)
Knowledge has always been a very valuable commodity and the competitive advantage that it gives, whether in times of conflict or in the creation of wealth, has been recognised since the very earliest civilisations.
There’s an apocryphal story that when the scribes in the ancient library in Alexandria asked to borrow the original works of Sophocles and Euripides to make copies for scholarly research, the Athenians demanded half a ton of gold as a guarantee of their safe return, so important were they to the well-being of the state. (more…)
Chief procurement officers have long viewed business process outsourcing (BPO) as a way to streamline operations, enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
BPO, however, can do so much more than that. Today, leaders in this space are increasingly looking at BPO as a way of adding value, enabling their procurement functions to play a more strategic role in the business. This involves using their BPO relationships to provide business insight, innovation, and solutions, not just cost cut. (more…)
Sustainability is currently a key driver in the procurement profession. Purchasing decisions on ethical sourcing and corporate social responsibility can contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals within an organisation.![[Bloglines]](http://blog.supplymanagement.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
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