News last week that Home Depot fired four purchasing managers for unethical purchasing tactics will certainly cause other companies to scrutinize their sourcing and supplier management methods. Discussions with supply management executives clearly indicate that automation can enforce standards, audit actions and decisions, and ensure integrity across all aspects of strategic sourcing, contract management, and [more]

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It’s amazing what you can find on the Web. While doing some routine investigation on Empower 2007 speakers, I uncovered a goldmine of supply management strategy papers and presentations published by these presenters.
Consider the Alliance Bernstein CPO Joanna Martinez’s paper on “Immersion Negotiation” techniques that empower buyers to derive best-value awards by being better prepared and [more]

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If the news yesterday that oil prices topped $69 a barrel seemed like the same old story, you’re right. And it market factors suggest that fuel prices will remain high for years to come.
Oil supplies to the West will continue to be strained by:

an unstable workforce, such as the current strike by Nigerian oil unions
artificial supply [more]

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“It all starts with spend.”
That’s how Hess Corporation Supply Chain Leader Carl Tatum summed up his company’s current supply management transformation initiative at the Supply Management 2.0 Forum in Houston last week.
Unfortunately, like most companies, Hess has relied on a mish-mash of automated tools and manual processes to aggregate and analyze its spending. This [more]

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At the final stop on the Supply Management 2.0 Forum in Houston last week, Hess Corporation Supply Chain Specialist Carl Tatum revived the lively debate over the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for supply management success.
“We need something more than year-over-year cost reductions to prove our ROI,” Tatum told the audience of Houston area supply [more]

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