In our work at freebenchmarking.com, one of the surprising findings is the amount of cost reduction available to companies by just implementing pricing that they have already achieved with suppliers. In times of economic uncertainty and with price reductions getting more difficult to achieve, companies can’t afford to let profits leak away. We see two […]
Savings in Your Backyard 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 »
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 »
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 »
