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by Paul Hawkinson on November 1, 2005: Posted on Monday, April 09, 2012 1:08 PM
“When I need a heart by-pass, rest assured that I won’tselect my surgeon on the basis of what he charges.” That’s what anailing executive recently opined when he was informed by his doctor about hisarterial blockage problems. Why then arecorporate executives so tightfisted when dealing with what is so commonlythought of as the “heartbeat” of their companies . . . top-talent? Companies thinkvery little about paying the often excessive fees charged by their outside accountingand legal firms . . . or even to the gaggle of consultants who promisecost-cutting and streamlining miracles in other areas of operations. |
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Joe Nihill: Posted on Sunday, March 25, 2012 12:13 AM
We are taking a survey and want to know what you think. Please comment - what do you consider to be the 10 Commandments of Supply Chain Management. When responding, please identify your focus (i.e. strategic, indirecct, MRO, CAPEX, etc.) We'll gather all your comments and provide lists by category of all responses received. Thanks for your input! |
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Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 2:48 PM
I was in a meeting the other day with several peers from a large corporation and one of the topics discussed was tapping in to smaller suppliers. Past research data has shown that large companies stick with large suppliers and small companies utilize smaller suppliers. As we talked, we identified a number of reasons why this happens, the most prevalent of which is the obvious - size compatibility. It seems that like-sized company counterparts feel more comfortable (and productive) in day-to-day business relationships because of sophistication synchronization, similar financial structure and finally, policy/procedure guideline issues. |
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Posted on Saturday, January 21, 2012 3:09 PM
About 10 years ago, I was gainfully employed by a nationally recognizable and prestigious Construction Management company. The division I was affiliated with consisted of mostly alpha-males who were all highly-intelligent, highly-skilled in their respective specialties and all very highly-strung. How I got there is anybody’s guess but that’s a story for another time. We were focused on managing the company's portfolio of clients whose manufacturing operations required new capital expansions that were one-off type projects utilizing processes based on cutting-edge technology. |
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Posted on Friday, February 04, 2011 2:46 PM
That Led Zeppelin song keeps resonating in my head when I think about the economic conditions that drive a Buyer’s Market vs a Seller’s Market. Being in the Procurement profession for a significant portion of my career, I’ve seen a number of both – relishing in the good times. Buy-downs, Savings and Value-Added Reports were relatively easy and the performance rewards, well . . . “Life was good”! During the bad times, however, well we all know what that’s like – Tums, Ambien and/or the additional Martini at (not so) Happy Hour. |
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Joe Nihill: Posted on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 1:36 PM
Ever wonder how fast lightning travels? Did you ever care? The USA Department of Energy gives the speed of lightning as 93,000 miles per second, which maybe a 'rough guide' figure based on the 'half the speed of light' principle! In business, we are all familiar with the term Efficiency Optimization. This is a non-stop effort aimed at continually improving performance of a given process, function or procedure. The general goal is to have things moving "lightning quick" thereby saving time, money or whatever other metric you are focused upon. |
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Posted on Sunday, January 23, 2011 11:10 PM
It seems that lately there really are signs of life for those of us involved in capital projects and hopefully this won't just be another short-lived spike. As capital funding is approved, the pressure will mount and with current bare-bones staff, now is the time to start the search to round out your project organization chart. There's still a lot of "A" team players on the market but as the economy starts to recover, available resources will dwindle. CSM can help you with your staffing needs, we maintain a database of resumes and we have an extensive network to help you with your needs. |
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