Supply Excellence

Entries from October 2007

The Gap: Corporate Grinch or Globalization Victim?

October 31st, 2007 · No Comments · LCCS and trade, best practices, supplier management, supply management, supply risk

Earlier this year I questioned the viability of The Gap’s (RED) Program, which nobly donated a portion of profits for certain products to fund vaccinations against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in poverty-stricken regions of the globe. (The Gap even doubled-down on its charitable actions by sourcing the cotton for these products from local farms in [...]

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Getting the Most from Industry Conferences

October 29th, 2007 · No Comments · supply management

Most business professionals would agree that industry conferences today are a crapshoot. Once limited to a few per year, the conference business has exploded with highly specialized events, half-day seminars, and virtual shows.
You could spend all year touring the globe (and the Web) attending conferences. But why would you? Most would agree that many conferences [...]

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Sustainability: Think Inside the Box

October 24th, 2007 · 5 Comments · best practices, enviro/social sustainability, supply management

Sustainability was a key theme of Procuri Empower 2007. Keynote speakers from Salesforce.com to Kellogg’s shared how their companies have turned environmentally and socially responsible business and supply practices into cost savings, competitive advantage, and profits. While their approaches to sustainability differ, all presenters agreed that any company can make great strides towards sustainability by [...]

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In Defense of Defense Department Purchasing

October 23rd, 2007 · No Comments · best practices, supply management

Please don’t misconstrue last week’s news of alleged corruption and graft in Defense Department purchasing in Iraq. A few bad apples should not spoil the years of red-tape cutting and purchasing efficiencies (and just downright effectiveness) that the DoD has achieved.
I was fortunate enough to witness the initial wave of governmental initiatives to streamline and [...]

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Letter from Iraq: Deviant Purchasing

October 19th, 2007 · 1 Comment · LCCS and trade, supply management

One day after praising the Defense Department for its innovative approach to using outcome sourcing for jet fighter uptime, I take it all back. An expose in the Wall Street Journal this week reports that U.S. military procurement officials are under investigation for an alleged price fixing and kick-back schemes involving some of the nation’s [...]

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