News You Can Use: 10/19/2016

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  • 6 Ways to Convince Your Boss That Traveling is Important

    The potential ROI gained from the trip is greater than the trip’s cost:
    For anyone who wants his or her boss to approve a business trip, it’s a good idea to map out the specific costs in advance, then estimate the potential ROI that could be garnered if you attended the event.

    Ensuring you keep all your business expenses related to the trip low — though many trips are tax deductible — will help create an optimistic view of the revenue potential and what positive gains could occur that could become the leverage for future business trips.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282904
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  • Rock ’em Sock ’em Telecom Services

    In telecommunications, acquisitions have strong influences on pricing structures, service offerings, and overall capabilities. The competition for these services continues to boom with more localized suppliers playing against the big wigs. Going for the “popular” name does not always result in the best fit for your company. When choosing a provider whether through a formal sourcing engagement or going to the market direct, you need an unbiased opinion and should focus on the facts versus fiction.

    http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2016/09/rock-em-sock-em-telecom-services.html

  • How To Manage Your Anxiety During Tough Times At Work

    When paranoid thinking creeps into your work life, you tend to look for evidence to prove your thinking right. It’s a cognitive function called“confirmation bias.” When you have a belief, for example, that someone is trying to keep you from getting promoted, you look for evidence that confirms that belief. In this case, you believe your colleague is blocking your promotion. When he doesn’t respond to your email, you see that as evidence of your belief.

    Instead of jumping to this conclusion, ask yourself, “What if the opposite were true?” What if he wasn’t blocking your promotion? What other reasons could there be for not responding to you?

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3063975/work-smart/how-to-manage-your-anxiety-during-tough-times-at-work
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  • How Wells Fargo’s Work Culture May Have Cleared The Way For Scandal

    The key ingredients that foster a hostile work environment, according to Faas, are unreasonable expectations put on employees, an acceptance of questionable practices, and reluctance to complain out of fear of retaliation. “If what we hear in the media about the treatment of whistleblowers is true, Wells Fargo has a much bigger issue than the fraudulent accounts—they have a culture of fear,” he says. “If this is validated, it puts to question the credibility of their leadership’s response.”

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3064175/how-wells-fargos-cross-selling-scandal-grew-out-of-workplace-culture

  • New Ernst & Young Report: Supply Chain Data “Overwhelms” Businesses, Stunting Automation, Efficiency

    Managing the data growth dilemma: The growing tsunami of data is both a boon and bane to businesses in the digital age. Limitless oceans of data, often reflecting customer experience as it happens, have the potential to remake supply chains and business models. These models can and should be more efficient, productive, flexible and responsive. But right now, data is a mess. The current period of hyper data growth leaves most companies in a position where their ability to uncover business insights is effectively hidden within an increasingly complex and often unfathomable amount of data.

    http://www.scmr.com/article/new_ernst_young_report_supply_chain_data_overwhelms_businesses_stunting_aut#When:12:53:00Z

  • Supply Risk and Compliance are Disconnected — That’s a Problem and an Opportunity

    So, you’re stuck in the supply risk swamp and bogged down by compliance regimes. And you know there is waste everywhere and opportunity all around. So, as a supply professional, what should you do? You need to align risk management and compliance management with not just each other but with performance management (including continuous improvement) — and tie them all into your value chain processes. As those processes go upstream and external, this is where procurement and supply chain groups feel this problem — and need for alignment — more than anyone in the enterprise.

    http://spendmatters.com/2016/09/27/supply-risk-compliance-disconnected-thats-problem-opportunity/

Photo: JD Weiher

News You Can Use: 9/21/2016

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  • Salesforce announces new role: Chief Equality Officer

    This move, while notable for its diversity efforts, reflects Benioff’s continued contribution to community. TechCrunch noted Salesforce’s 1/1/1 charity program, which has over the years given “over $128 million in grants” and allowed employees to volunteer more than 1.6 million hours in their communities.

    http://www.hrdive.com/news/salesforce-announces-new-role-chief-equality-officer/426278/

  • Is Technology Making Procurement Professionals Lazy?

    More astute procurement professionals may be compelled to move towards more sophisticated technology which may be overly complex for the issue you are trying to solve. If you are trying to get adoption across your organisation versus a subset of power users, then make sure your specification is fit for purpose in order to maximise the impact across the organisation. Broad adoption is highly correlated to ease of use and buying a “spreadsheet on steroids” will likely mean you need an analyst to answer every executive’s question about your procurement spend.

    One of the great challenges procurement leader’s face is that they are often compelled to use procurement tools affiliated with their ERP provider. Most of these tools were born during the days of “Feature Wars” where more and more complexity was added to the tool until it became almost unusable without heroic manual effort. Where leaders have the influence to pull it off, they should explore best of breed, built for purpose tools.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–guest-blog/is-technology-making-procurement-professionals-lazy-639415
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  • How Long Until Hackers Start Faking Leaked Documents?

    Forging thousands—or more—documents is difficult to pull off, but slipping a single forgery in an actual cache is much easier. The attack could be something subtle. Maybe a country that anonymously publishes another country’s diplomatic cables wants to influence yet a third country, so adds some particularly egregious conversations about that third country. Or the next hacker who steals and publishes email from climate change researchers invents a bunch of over-the-top messages to make his political point even stronger. Or it could be personal: someone dumping email from thousands of users making changes in those by a friend, relative, or lover.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/hacking-forgeries/499775/?utm_source=feed
    This is a great question, I have to imagine it has already happened. 

  • Why Supply Chain Managers Are Psychopaths

    A study of 261 corporate professionals working in supply chain management found that 21 percent of those individuals had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits, such as insincerity, lack of empathy or remorse, egocentric behavior, and the ability to be both charming and superficial.

    The study found the supply chain management professionals had similar levels of psychopathic traits to the broad prison population.

    http://www.sdcexec.com/news/12256445/why-supply-chain-managers-are-psychopaths
    Difference Spin on the same study:
    One out of five American CEOs might be a psychopath

    “A really interesting question is whether psychopathy can be a positive thing. Some psychologists would say yes, that there are certain attributes like coolness under pressure, which is sort of a fundamental positive. But Robert Hare would always say no, that in the absence of empathy, which is the definition in psychology of a psychopath, you will always get malevolence,” Ronson told Forbes.

    “Basically, high-scoring psychopaths can be brilliant bosses but only ever for short term,” he added.

    http://www.zmescience.com/science/psychology-science/psychopathic-executives/
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  • Do You Have A F*cking Problem With Swearing At Work?

    But be careful who you swear around. The Wrike study revealed that of the 43% of those who do not use profane language in the workplace, 36% are bothered when others drop the F-bomb, and 20% would consider filling an official complaint in regards to their colleagues’ language. On the other hand, 33% of respondents would not consider a position at a workplace that strictly banned swearing, so you can’t f*cking win either way.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3063775/do-you-have-a-fcking-problem-with-swearing-at-work?partner=rss

Photo: Ian Schneider

News You Can Use: 8/31/2016

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  • After IBM & GE, even SAP ditches annual reviews

    SAP’s human resources head for Germany, Wolfgang Fassnacht, said Europe’s biggest software maker had found the annual review process, with its focus on separating over- from under-performers, was often counter-productive to the goal of constructive dialogue.

    “Grading workers did not work. People are open to feedback, also to harsh criticism, until the moment you start giving scores. Then the shutters go down,” he told Reuters.

    SAP is testing a new process, which includes more regular check-in talks, on about 8,000 of its workers and aims to implement it for all of its almost 80,000 workforce next year.

    “The old system is too static,” said Fassnacht. “It no longer reflects the dynamic circumstances we are operating in.”

    http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate/after-ibm-ge-even-sap-ditches-annual-reviews/53671429
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  • Supply Chain Performance and….. Sleep?

    I just finished reading The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington, CEO of theHuffington Post.  She makes a great case for how we have become a culture that treats sleep as wasted time and as optional. But more and more professionals are making the connection between sleep and performance.  We already know that truck drivers and airline pilots can be dangerous when they don’t get enough sleep. Collegiate and professional athletes and Olympians are now tracking their sleep patterns against improved performance results. Some athletes have recorded as much as 8-10% improved batting averages, basket shots made and race times when they get eight or more hours of sleep.  In addition, academic scores improve and in a corporate setting, decisions are better.

    http://www.scmr.com/article/supply_chain_performance_and.._sleep#When:13:44:00Z

  • Laptops most often stolen from most unlikely place

    When Kensington asked respondents where company employees had experienced IT theft, the No. 1 response was ‘cars and transportation’ at 25 percent. But the No. 2 response, coming in ahead of ‘airports and hotels’ (15 percent) and ‘restaurants’ (12 percent), was the office (23 percent).

    http://www.cio.com/article/3107865/security/laptops-stolen-from-office-more-frequently-than-from-airports-or-restaurants.html<
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  • Supply chain risk hits three-year high

    “The UK’s departure from the EU could lead to some of the most dramatic shifts and severe implications for global supply chains in the coming years,” said CIPS economist John Glen. “While the full impact of the leave vote is still unfolding, confusion and uncertainty surrounding the current situation has already driven supply chain risk to a worryingly high level.”

    “In the short term, supply chains will be exposed to exchange rate volatility risks which may be difficult to hedge. It may therefore be appropriate to crystallize exchange rate exposure by paying suppliers ahead of contracted payment days.

    http://www.cips.org/supply-management/news/2016/august/supply-chain-risk-hits-three-year-high/

  • How to Think Like an FBI Negotiator?

    Former FBI negotiator Chris Voss sheds light on communication and indirect messages, the value of empathy in business and in life, and when and how to walk away from a deal. Chris Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It”

Photo: Nico Beard

News You Can Use: 8/24/2016

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  • Why outsourced call center roles are coming back onshore

    While companies must pay more for onshore call center agents (offshore labor rates are typically 40 to 55 percent of onshore rates), increased automation has helped defray some of the extra expense of local labor. “While companies are ready to pay more for better quality services, increased technology leverage in a traditionally labor-intensive contact center space has offset some of the additional cost,” Bhargava says.

    In addition, companies are increasingly adopting a work-at-home model for agents, which incurs lower operational costs than onshore full-time-equivalents (FTEs). Work-at-home agents are typically 5 to 10 percent cheaper than on-site professionals in the U.S., Bhargava says.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3106821/outsourcing/why-outsourced-call-center-roles-are-coming-back-onshore.html

  • What’s Next After Supply Chains?

    http://www.onenetwork.com/2016/08/whats-next-after-supply-chains/
  • More airline outages as carriers grapple with ageing technology

    The reservations systems of the biggest carriers mostly run on a specialized IBM operating system known as Transaction Processing Facility, or TPF. It was designed in the 1960s to process large numbers of transactions quickly and is still updated by IBM, which did a major rewrite of the operating system about a decade ago.

    A host of special features, ranging from mobile check-ins to seat selection and cabin upgrades, are built on top of the TPF core, or connected to it.

    “They have surrounded that old industry infrastructure with modern technology,” said Bob Edwards, United Continental Holdings’ former chief information officer until 2014. “Those systems have to always reach back into the old core technologies to retrieve a reservation or to figure out who flies between Dallas and New York City.”

    When a power outage shuts off that reservations system – as happened on Monday to Delta Air Lines’ “Deltamatic” system – TPF falls out of sync with the newer technologies that passenger service agents use to assist travellers, Edwards said.

    http://www.business-standard.com/article/international/more-airline-outages-as-carriers-grapple-with-ageing-technology-116081301175_1.html

  • Exclusive: Honeywell explores acquisition of JDA Software

    The acquisition would illustrate how Honeywell, a U.S. diversified industrial conglomerate, is keen to boost its automation portfolio after it agreed last month to acquire Intelligrated Inc, a U.S. distribution systems and logistics company, for $1.5 billion.

    JDA Software’s majority owner, buyout firm New Mountain Capital LLC, has already explored a sale of the company to private equity firms, and there is no certainty its latest talks with Honeywell will result in a deal, the people said on Monday.

    https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-honeywell-explores-acquisition-jda-software-sources-200622953–sector.html

  • SAP Targets Terrorism With AI

    SAP National Security Services, which describes itself as an independent subsidiary of the German-based software giant that’s operated by U.S. citizens on American soil, works with homeland government agencies to find ways to track potential terrorists across social media.

    “One [use] is the identification of bad actors: People that may be threats to us—people and organizations,” says Mark Testoni, president and CEO of SAP NS2, as the company is known. “Secondarily, once we’ve identified those kinds of players and actors, we can then track their behaviors and organizations.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3062259/sap-targets-terrorism-with-ai

Photo: Nico Beard

News You Can Use: 8/17/2016

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  • Filler Words Like “Um” Aren’t All Bad, and Can Be Used to Your Advantage

    But, according to the experts, there’s still a right and wrong way to use them. Fraundorf recommends you try to use only a few when you talk, noting that too many can make comprehension harder. And Steven D. Cohen, assistant professor of communication at the University of Baltimore, suggests you use “like” and “I mean” as fillers instead of “uh” or “um.” People tend to be more forgiving of words that suggest contemplation as opposed to words that draw attention to a loss for words. Cohen also points out that filler words used in the middle of a sentence are less likely to be noticed, and a silent pause may be the best form of filler if you’re looking to have a dramatic impact on your listeners. If you want to read more on the benefits of filler words, check out the link below.

    http://lifehacker.com/filler-words-like-um-arent-all-bad-and-can-be-used-t-1784468757

  • Don’t Follow Your Passion by Mike Rowe
  • Brainstorming Is Dumb

    The old brainstorming method infiltrated the American workplace over half a century ago, after an advertising executive named Alex F. Osborn coined the method in the 1940s. As companies all over the country adopted the method, psychologists started to wonder: Does brainstorming actually work? Many scientific studies later, they had their answer: a resounding no. Study after study found that people who use this group technique produce fewer good ideas than those who ideate alone.

    But there is an alternative that works better:

    Over the past 20 years, researchers have discovered a collection of group techniques that they’ve found are more effective than both brainstorming and working alone. One of the best ones they’ve devised is brainwriting—it’s a kind of like brainstorming, except that group members write their ideas on pieces of paper instead of sharing out loud. People then pass those sheets of paper around the group and read each other’s ideas while they continue to write down their own ideas. This method allows the kind of group interaction that’s constructive (i.e., sharing ideas and building on them), while avoiding the pitfalls of face-to-face brainstorming.

    http://www.fastcodesign.com/3062292/evidence/brainstorming-is-dumb

  • 7 Ways to Cut Travel Expenses

    Small savings add up when it comes to long funding rounds and weeks at a time being spent on the road. For example, say that you and your partners need two hotel rooms, for a total of 21 nights, across various cities. Saving just $25 per hotel room per night will equal savings of $1,050. That’s a significant amount for a fledgling startup.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/279734

  • Supply chain profile: Daniel Myers

    Q: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen during your career?

    A: I have seen us move in the industry from a siloed [view] to sharing information. We call my division the “integrated supply chain” because breaking down divisions is the secret to business success. We’ve got to be consumer-driven and optimize the total value chain to succeed, moving from silos to a focus on common metrics. The Information Age allows you to do that.

    Q: What hasn’t changed?

    A: The focus on having leaders of integrity who can build trust and “followership.” You can sense when you have a great leader because people want to be there. That’s true for all generations; Millennials want to work for something greater than money—they want to work for something they’re proud of.

    http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20160810-supply-chain-profile-daniel-myers/

Photo: Joey Kyber