The Supply Management Forum in San Jose last week was a venerable Who’s Who in high technology, with supply management executives from the world’s leading software, hardware, and media companies swapping stories and tips on global supply strategies. And that was just the audience.
Our featured panelists included Roll International Corporation Director of Strategic Sourcing Alvin [more]

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Last week’s rant — “Putting an End to Patent Madness” — put the spotlight on a critical issue for enterprises considering supply management software investments. It also sparked some great debate among Supply Excellence readers looking to balance intellectual property (IP) protection with the insatiable need for continuous innovation and improvement.
I tip my hat [more]

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Last week’s post on CPO views of supply management metrics ignited a heated debate among Supply Excellence readers. The post cited comments from the CPOs of National City Corporation and AllianceBerstein stating that cost reduction was the chief metric for supply management performance.
Since then, I have been flamed by angry readers defending the finer points of [more]

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The rule of business these days seems to be: Those that can, do. Those that can’t, file a patent-infringement lawsuit. 
In tech circles, patents have traditionally functioned as the intellectual property equivalent of the Cold War, with each company’s arsenal of patents deterring the other from firing the first shot. Unfortunately, it is fast becoming modus operandi for businesses [more]

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Driving change is hard. Driving change in a highly decentralized business environment without a clear mandate can be downright overwhelming. That was the challenged faced by one of the world’s largest and most innovative technology companies.
 “For a company that prides itself on innovation, driving standard procurement processes and procedures is almost counter to the business [more]

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