So far the steel industry trends to watch next year have been extensions or acceleration of current conditions - Industry Consolidation and Vertical Integration. Both are extremely important for buyers to monitor since they have short and long term impacts on steel price and supply. But our third trend to watch in 2009, Steel Futures, [more]

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Pharmaceutical companies have historically been top-line focused. Due to a combination of patent law and block-buster drugs, they’ve been in a very strong position from a revenue standpoint (think Claratin, the little purple pill and the little blue pill). The model worked well for quite some time due to high volume, exclusivity and high prices [more]

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Following close on the heels of the first 2009 trend to watch - Steel Industry Consolidation - is the continuing move towards Vertical Integration. Historically, many of the challenges steel mills faced in the past were due to their lack of control of supplies of raw materials. For example in the early 90’s, when raw [more]

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I know we’re a little early for 2009 prediction posts, which usually come sometime between Thanksgiving gluttony and sloppy Auld Lang Syn sing-alongs. But I wanted to get these off my chest for a couple of reasons. First, the steel markets are extremely volatile, so it pays for buyers to stay out in front of [more]

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If your organization has an International Purchasing Office (IPO), you likely jumped through quite a few hoops to get the doors open. Management buy-in, staffing, budget realities, goals, regulations and logistics are just a few of the challenges involved. So, a hearty pat on the back is in order…but don’t get too comfortable because you’re [more]

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