On this blog, we often talk about low-cost country sourcing, outsourcing, currency fluctuation strategies and macro economic challenges. But rarely is there ever one story that ties all of those issues together as well as that of Airbus, a company faced with slowing industry demand, a strong Euro (where they manufacture) vs a weak USD [more]

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As my recent post discussed, the key to successfully utilizing Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) as a low-cost sourcing region is finding the “sweet spot” - the location where costs, distance to market and capacity all add up to provide the optimum sourcing opportunity. Clearly, there are lots of moving parts and variables in this [more]

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Playing cat and mouse is no novelty game for the regulators and the suppliers. When people are hit by hard economic times, governments often intervene to improve citizens’ living conditions. At the same time businesses have to maintained their profitability. This is where two opposite agendas often clash. The latest examples in Europe include the [more]

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I have received a lot of questions from coworkers and clients about the situation in Georgia. Obviously during a conflict, the hope of nearly everyone is that the fighting will cease and a peaceful resolution will be reached quickly. But from a business perspective, companies in EMEA, the US and around the globe want to [more]

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Everybody is aware of the trans-Atlantic trade implications of a weak US dollar, which has lost another 12% of it’s value against the Euro in the last year. European exporters are struggling if they deliver to US customers, whose purchasing power has been greatly diminished in the last few years (see the graph on Kevin [more]

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