Supply Excellence
← Microsoft: The End of Software as We Know It Fear and Loathing in Global Sourcing →

Top Supply Management Cliches: Rock the Vote

August 15th, 2007 · by Tim Minahan · 16 Comments · supply management

I had to chuckle yesterday when marketing guru Seth Godin issued an interactive list of the top business cliches. The most used (and often misused) business terms listed range from the dreaded “paradigm shift” to such consultant-fav’s as “core competency.” You can get lost voting for and adding your own favorite — or, more likely, least favorite – cliches.

The amusing list inspired me to develop a similar yet decidedly more low-tech list of the The Top Supply Management Cliches.

Lacking a fancy polling tool, Supply Excellence encourages readers to vote for your favorite cliches from the below list simply by adding a comment to this post. If you think of a Supply Management cliche I might have missed, please add it to your comments. 

Your vote counts! I will repost the list in the coming weeks, re-ranking the cliches according to your votes.

The Top Supply Management Cliches

  1. Supply management
  2. Spend management (#2 only out of deference to my fellow blogger.)
  3. Win-win (I added this one to Seth’s own list and it’s already climed to #44.)
  4. Best-value
  5. Lowest total cost
  6. TCO
  7. LCCS
  8. China Sourcing
  9. e-anything (e-sourcing, e-procurement, etc.)
  10. ROI
  11. Low-hanging fruit
  12. Quick win
  13. Alignment
  14. Synergy
  15. Cross-functional 
  16. Risk management
  17. Change management
  18. Core competency (Sorry, Seth. I had to borrow this one. It was way too relevant.)
  19. The 80-20 rule (Ditto.)
  20. CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management)
  21. ECM (Enterprise Contract Management)
  22. PLM (Product Lifecycle Management)
  23. Value-add
  24. Collaboration
  25. Bottom line
  26. Benchmarking
  27. Best-in-class
  28. Magic Quadrant
  29. Strategic anything
  30. Value chain
  31. Rationalize
  32. On-boarding
  33. The next level
  34. Center-led
  35. Value-based
  36. Next-generation
  37. On Demand
  38. Executive support
  39. Lean anything

Please add your own supply management terms to the list. (I could have gone on and on, but I stopped at “39″ in honor of my wife’s birthday.) We have all suffered from the use and abuse of these terms and phrases. So, it’s about time we had some fun with them.

Email Forward & Bookmarks
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Email] More »

Tags:

16 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Don // Aug 15, 2007 at 10:09 am

    C’mon, Tim. How could you omit “total best value sourcing” from your list? ;-)

  • 2 Tim Minahan // Aug 15, 2007 at 10:13 am

    Sure, we can add it. Seems like a combination of total cost and best-value, though. :)

  • 3 Mike O. // Aug 15, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    How about Supply Excellence, SpendMatters, Sourcing Innovation,… opps! Sorry I forgot where I was.
    Hum,… there are some good candidates using blog tags like - supply market dynamics, financial value chain, and enviro/social sustainability.

  • 4 Mark Usher // Aug 15, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    A new one would be: Two by two matrix (or just “two by two”)

  • 5 Tim Minahan // Aug 15, 2007 at 2:43 pm

    Absolutely. We should create a 2×2 matrix on the attributes of what makes a great 2×2 matrix!

  • 6 Jason Busch // Aug 15, 2007 at 4:06 pm

    Nice start, my friend. I’d add a few more …

    Total value management (similiar to TCO)
    SaaS
    SarbOX (what the heck are the caps for)
    BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China)
    LCCS

    Man, we could jot down hundreds of cliches and jargon.

  • 7 Tim Minahan // Aug 15, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    All equally egregiously overused and abused terms. I knew I could count on you, Jason, to take up the cause. I’m sure there’s much more jargon jumping around in your head. This certainly (regretably?) won’t be the last word.

  • 8 Charles Dominick, SPSM // Aug 16, 2007 at 8:29 am

    Fun idea, Tim!

    How about…

    Best of Breed?
    Procure-to-pay?
    Req-to-check?

    Ah, man, I better stop now. I’ll be here all day!

  • 9 Tim Minahan // Aug 16, 2007 at 9:52 am

    It’s addicting, isn’t it? Thanks for the additions, Chaz.

  • 10 Sherry Gordon // Aug 16, 2007 at 11:47 am

    Here are a few more:

    rightsize
    empower
    enabler
    quick hit

  • 11 Sumita Jayaraman // Aug 16, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    How about

    leverage
    off-shoring?

  • 12 WJJ // Aug 16, 2007 at 1:14 pm

    Just some of the ones that are too buzzy IMHO:

    enabling technology
    CPO
    supplier segmentation
    p-cards
    transparency
    value
    world class
    diversity
    green
    six sigma
    maverick buys
    landed cost
    cost avoidance
    assurance of supply
    business contiinuity
    supplier rationalization
    consolidation

  • 13 Tim Minahan // Aug 16, 2007 at 2:15 pm

    Great additions. How could I forget terms like offshoring and cost avoidance?

    This list is shaping up.

  • 14 Anon // Aug 17, 2007 at 12:25 am

    I don’t know. It looks like many of the “additions” are not cliche’s in the spirit of Seth’s original list.

  • 15 Dan McCarthy // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:41 am

    FIFI, LIFO,and FISH (First In, Still Here)

  • 16 Danielle // Sep 6, 2007 at 4:13 pm

    Thought you page was great and had to share our running list as well… our favorite “key phrases” from our sourcing mtgs /vendor neg.

    Go back and sharpen your pencils
    Don’t want to be in their pants
    What’s the value proposition?
    You need you to put some skin in the game
    It’s a deal breaker
    What is it going to cost me to buy this pencil?
    He’s is deep space 9
    It’s got a lot of hair on it
    Lets put it on the table and see if it grows feet
    We don’t pay for that
    What’s the magic sauce?
    They must Peddle Faster
    Its “free”, right?
    What part of “no” don’t you understand?
    You got 30 seconds . . . get to the point.
    Best cost country sourcing? We do no costssourcing…
    Where are the bones?
    Do we get a free radio clock with that?
    What kind of mickey mouse operation are your running?
    You play “bad cop” I’ll play worse cop.

Leave a Comment