Category: Supply Chain

Posted on

News you can use: 7/29/2015

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  • New procurement method may cut education costs

    The two popular processes – centralized and decentralized – have both benefits and disadvantages. Centralized operations simplify ordering. One office or official is designated as the person who does all the purchasing. However, this can leave the individual departments without the supplies they need, ChainLink Research claimed. The focus remains on the school as a whole. Decentralized procurement has the opposite effect. The buying power is in the hands of the departments. They have the freedom to purchase what they need. Unfortunately, schools may go over budget with so many people having free reign of the finances.

    http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2015/07/new-procurement-method-may-cut.html

  • LinkedIn’s making it harder to download your account data

    LinkedIn has removed the tool that allowed users to easily export contacts. Now, users who wish to download their first degree connections will need to go through a process that can take up to 72 hours to complete. The change was first spotted by a Twitter user and confirmed by VentureBeat.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248790?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • Keys to Successful Supplier-Enabled Innovation

    One key issue, the report finds, is that there is hardly a widely accepted definition of what Supplier-Enabled Innovation really means. That said, about two-thirds of respondents said that SEI should not be viewed as something special, but rather it should be intertwined with all the other tasks that procurement managers perform as a matter of course. However, an important block instead sees SEI as a “specific program, a set of dedicated workstreams, where the business invests resources, monitors progress, and builds the innovation output into organizational priorities.”

    http://www.scdigest.com/ONTARGET/15-07-21-1.PHP?cid=9541&ctype=content

  • Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Because We Shouldn’t.

    Stick to the issue and don’t let things get out of hand or go out of bounds. Heated arguments are typical but the way to keep them productive is to coach people to attack the problem, not the person. It’s OK to say, “I think your idea is doomed and here’s why,” but not “I think you’re a clueless idiot.” It should never get personal. Also banish any extraneous topics to the parking lot and keep things moving along.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248684?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • This Strategy Will Make Negotiations Less Painful

    Medvec is a proponent of a negotiation technique called MESOs, orMultiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers. The idea behind MESOs is to give the other party multiple options to choose from that are equivalent from your standpoint.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248572?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

Posted on

News you can use: 7/22/2015

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Photo: Nico Time, Flickr

  • The End of Buying and Selling

    Yet buying and selling became central enterprises of business over the course of the last century. Corporations focused on standardization—the Deming ideal—so needs became predictable enough to compare vendors directly, find the greatest price value through the routinized process of request for proposal (RFP), and thereby provide what everyone needed. Buying became the science of squeezing price, sales the art of justifying price, and both functions grew into large organizations. Business is getting too complex and dynamic for centralized buying and selling machines. What’s more, the strategic sourcing initiatives of the past two decades all but erased margins for high-volume suppliers. When the absolute floor is the baseline, there is no need to sell, per se. There is only a need to serve. In fact, there is a heightened need to serve. The only way to differentiate a company is in helping customers profit through the use of products.

    http://www.sdcexec.com/article/12091986/the-end-of-buying-and-selling

  • 7 Mentors You Didn’t Even Know You Had

    You want to build an awesome business right? Then you need to understand how to create an awesome customer experience. Well, you’re a customer too right? Most of what I’ve learned about customer service has been from being a customer. I look at each person or company I buy from as a mentor because they help me create better experiences for my customers by creating a good or bad buying experience for me.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247900?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • McDonalds vow to end deforestation in its global supply chain

    Applying throughout the entire supply chain, the core principles and practices of McDonald’s commitment on deforestation include: No deforestation of primary forests or areas of high conservation value; No development of high carbon stock forest areas and no development on peatlands regardless of depth, and the utilization of best management practices for existing commodity production on peatlands.

    http://www.supplychaindigital.com/supplychainmanagement/4052/McDonalds-vow-to-end-deforestation-in-its-global-supply-chain

  • 83% of supply chain executives report lackluster performance as they struggle to get to grips with effects of globalization

    Supply chains are being held back by the effects of globalization, according to a new survey, with 83% of executives from leading enterprises claiming to see only average or poor performance. Over 60% said this is primarily due to the number of partners involved and the risks this creates, which is in turn limiting their flexibility.

    http://mhwmagazine.co.uk/LatestNews/83%25_of_supply_chain_executives_report_lacklustre_performance_as_they_struggle_to_get_to_grips_with_e-19059.html

  • ORACLE CLOSES ITS CLOUD PROCUREMENT GAPS

    The two new services include the Order Management Cloud and the Global Order Promising Cloud. Together, they offer order management, visibility and order fulfillment capabilities, the company said. But to go a step further, Oracle’s new services connect businesses’ current sales and order processes in its Configure, Price and Quote Cloud product and their current packing and shipping services in the Inventory Cloud product, all to Oracle’s billing in the Enterprise Resource Planning Cloud.

    http://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2015/oracle-closes-its-cloud-procurement-gaps/

Posted on

News you can use: 7/15/2015

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Photo: Thomas Hawk, Flickr

  • CEO Pay Has Risen 90 Times Faster Than Average Worker Pay Since The 1970s

    Defenders of outsized executive pay argue CEOs get what they deserve: that their performance justifies the huge outlays. But the paper doesn’t find much evidence for it, at least in the aggregate. Between 1978 and 2014, the stock market rose only about half as much as CEO pay did. And CEO pay has been rising across the board, both at companies that have been doing well and those that haven’t.

    http://www.fastcoexist.com/3048172/ceo-pay-has-risen-90-times-faster-than-average-worker-pay-since-the-1970s?partner=rss

  • Workday is creating a supply chain tool for the healthcare industry

    “Health care providers are dealing with a significant amount of complexity,” said Workday Vice President of Industry Strategy and Alliances John Webb. “New regulations, industry consolidation and a shifting patient relationship are changing the way they manage their organizations. With Workday, health care providers will have the people, financial and supply chain insights they need, all in one system built on a flexible foundation from which they can continually adapt and grow in a dynamic industry.

    http://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2015/workday-launches-finance-supply-chain-tool-for-healthcare/

  • 4 Surefire Ways to Grow Your Circle of Influence

    1. Do what you say. Nothing erodes personal credibility faster than a lack of trust. Building trust is fundamental to increasing your circle of influence. If you possess the skill to execute project A and the will to do so ethically, then others’ trust in you will increase. Just be consistent because once you break that trust it’s like taking a piece of paper, wrinkling it up and then trying to flatten it out again — it never actually returns to its original state.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248220?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • LOGISTICS COSTS ARE UP, BUT SO ARE WAYS TO MANAGE THEM

    But the most prominent reason for rising supply chain management costs, researchers found, was transportation. According to the CSCMP, transportation costs increased by 3.6 percent last year due to larger shipment volumes, the emergence of same-day delivery models and the continuing adoption of eCommerce. These trends are forcing warehouse management strategies to change and have largely led to the adoption of warehouse management Software-as-a-Service solutions.

    http://www.pymnts.com/in-depth/2015/logistics-costs-are-up-but-so-are-ways-to-manage-them/

  • How I Broke Through My Own Mediocrity

    The mediocre entrepreneur doesn’t “Blink” in the Malcolm Gladwell sense. In Gladwell’s book he often talks about people who can form snap correct judgements in two or three seconds. My initial judgement when I meet or even see people is this: I hate you. And then I veer from that to too trusting. Finally, after I bounce back and forth, and through much trial and error, I end up somewhere in the middle. I also tend to drop people I can’t trust very quickly. I think the great entrepreneur can make snap judgements and be very successful with it. But that doesn’t work for most people.

    http://lifehacker.com/how-i-broke-through-my-own-mediocrity-1716887232

  • Small Cloud Providers Serve Supply Chain Management Market

    The SCM market is highly fragmented. The top 10 vendors have about 55% of the market, with the remainder split among 57 vendors. These 57 experienced average annual revenue growth of 9.6%, indicating strong demand for specialized offerings that are competitive with, and sometimes complementary to, the larger providers’ products.

    http://www.ebnonline.com/author.asp?section_id=1084&doc_id=278076