Jennifer Baljko’s latest blog got me thinking about supply chain innovation. (See: Fending Off the Budget-Planning Monster.) Her question, “How can they lower supply and materials costs while keeping supplier and customer relationships intact?” is about supply chain. Her comment, “The approaches, however, don’t strike me as particularly novel,” is about innovation. She can’t see […]
Where’s the Innovation? Read More »
Buyers want to get good value for their money, and sellers want a good return on what is sold. Coming to agreement on what price satisfies both parties involves a process of negotiation. When someone buys, it is a cost; when someone sells, it is a price. Supply chain professionals are on the buy side
The Art of Pricing Read More »
I talked to a woman on a plane a few weeks ago; not unusual. She talked about how ineffective many of the HR training programs are in improving performance; again nothing unusual. Her post-doctorate work in this area revealed that people operate with self-imposed constraints limiting their performance and potential; very unusual. These constraints can
The Internet, enabled by cool applications, has brought the process of competitive bidding to an entirely new level. Reverse auctions, for example, have squeezed savings out of suppliers in every situation I am aware of. But it’s getting worse for suppliers. Some companies are using bidding to gauge a supplier’s competitiveness. That may be clever
Values Up or Prices Down Read More »
We should be grateful that accountants invented the concept of gross margin. The simple formula — revenue minus cost divided by revenue — really becomes valuable once we get past the arithmetic and view it as the extra value seen by a customer over a product’s manufacturing cost. This extra value can be a result
Eventually, It All Boils Down to Cost Read More »
