I am in the business of price benchmarking and cost reduction, but even so, I am amazed at what supply chain professionals have achieved. With specials and deals of all kinds during the holiday season, it is astounding the value that is being passed on to customers at very low prices in electronic products. Thirty-two-inch […]
The Virtues of Vertical Integration Read More »
As chief procurement officer for Nortel Networks Ltd. during the downturn in the optical business in 2000, I had to preside over the management of billions of dollars of excess material. This is not something I ever want to have to do again, and I am sure none of you want to do it, either.
Avoiding Inventory Overload Read More »
Corporate governance is a pretty dry subject in the best of times, but it just may become a bit more interesting, particularly if we have gotten it wrong and it turns out to be the source of the current worldwide economic crisis. The Occupy Wall Street protests clearly show the people’s frustration with high unemployment
An Inevitable Clash Read More »
Knowledge chains enable supply chain performance. They bring together the information and context that let you make decisions and take actions. Gaps in a supply chain are noticed and fixed immediately, but holes in a knowledge chain often go undetected. This is because supply chain gaps are usually catastrophic, but knowledge gaps are performance-limiting. How
Many Advantages of a Strong Knowledge Chain Read More »
To paraphrase Peter Drucker in his book, Post Capitalist Society, what Karl Marx envisioned has been achieved in America, and true capitalism is alive today in China. Marx wanted the wealth of companies to be in the hands of the workers. This has been achieved in the West through the holdings of pension funds. Capitalism,
The Post Capitalist Society Read More »
I am disturbed by how many of my friends are unprepared for retirement. I shouldn’t be surprised, however — walk through Wal-Mart or stay at any North American hotel, and you see too many older people, who should be enjoying their golden years, working. I’m also disturbed by the high levels of unemployment; skilled people
The Myth vs. Reality of Worker Productivity Read More »
As promised in my previous post, LiveChat Follow-Up on Price Competitiveness, Part 1, I am outlining in this blog the final two actions from my top five steps to ensuring competitive pricing in the current environment. This follows on the request from EBN readers for more specific information on how to achieve better pricing, beyond
LiveChat Follow-Up on Price Competitiveness (Part 2) Read More »
Several of you have asked for more specific information on how to achieve better pricing, beyond what we were able to cover in last month’sLiveChat. In a two-part response, I want to discuss my top five actions that can improve your price competitiveness in the current environment. 1. Use target pricing: This is not a
LiveChat Follow-Up on Price Competitiveness (Part 1) Read More »
The late Richard Beckhard, industrial psychologist and adjunct professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, developed an equation for change. He called it a “change equation” when really it was its vector equivalent — progress — but as he’s not a physicist, he can be forgiven. His equation describes how to achieve change in
The Price Change Equation Read More »
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 »
