Your sourcing model can make or break the deal This article by Kate Vitasek appeared in IACCM’s Contracting Excellence magazine on 31 Mar 2015 Whether a company is looking to outsource a non-core function across the street or across an ocean, choosing the right sourcing model is crucial: it will make or break the deal. […]
Don’t Buy It If It Doesn’t Fit
A recent blog from marketing guru Seth Godin talks about that beautiful pair of shoes—and on sale at a great price!—only there’s one catch: they are one size too small. There’s a decision to be made: should you opt for the good looking bargain and go with sore feet until maybe the shoes stretch out? […]
House of Lies: Is This Any Way to Run a Business?
Well no, but it does make for entertaining, and in a way, thought-provoking television. Showtime’s popular dark comedy, House of Lies, is described as a “subversive, scathing look at a self-loathing management consultant from a top-tier firm.” Marty Kaan (as portrayed by Don Cheadle) and his MBA colleagues at Kaan & Associates charm unsuspecting corporate […]
Transform SRM into Strategic Relationship Management
In SupplyChainBrain’s 2015 Resource Guide, one of my articles notes that the movement to implement real and lasting collaboration is alive and well in supplier relationship management (SRM). The key point is, how can SRM be truly effective without collaboration that includes processes for transparency and continuous communication, and where suppliers are full partners in managing […]
It’s Logical to get on the Pony
During the course of my LinkedIn Q&A series on various aspects of Vested, I discussed exactly what I mean when I talk about the Pony, which is a cornerstone of achieving a win-win business relationship that creates and shares value. Briefly, the Pony is the quantified difference in value between today’s current process and the […]
Nuts Going Nuts over Nuts
Maybe there’s something in the air at 30,000 feet—or even taxiing for takeoff—that sends people over the edge, but this one adds a new dimension to the term “air-rage.” Call it “nut-rage.” According to a BBC News Asia report a Korean Air executive, Heather Cho, was jailed for one year for obstructing aviation after she […]
Conjoined Twins: Opportunity and Risk
I have written about the nature of risk and how taking a risk averse approach to business relationships is common, but not the best path for long term innovative success. I was reminded of this idea once again following my recent appearance on Jon Hansen’s BlogTalkRadio show with Phil Coughlin, who is President Global Geographies and Operations […]
Transforming the Workplace
In a previous post I talked about the importance of aligning company cultures in order to be successful. There’s an equally important cultural corollary: aligning and modernizing the workplace to join the 21st Century. Guy Laurence, former CEO of Vodafone UK Ltd., talked about the “death” of the traditional workplace in a talk he gave […]
Company Culture Really Matters
We often think companies can work around cultural differences with their partners—or prospective partners—in part because they may be overconfident, or in love with everything else about the deal they are negotiating. But that’s almost always a short-sighted mistake, as outlined in a recent article in SupplyChain247, by John D. Hanson and Steven A. Melnyk, […]
Steal This Post!
A recent article on Linkedin’s Pulse raises an issue that many in the arena of ideas and new or emerging business concepts worry about: plagiarism and the concept of “accidental plagiarism.” In “The Biggest Reason We Steal Other People’s Ideas,” Adam Grant writes about kleptomnesia, or “generating an idea that you believe is novel, but in fact was […]
