Some interesting and encouraging insights regarding the company-supplier interface came out of the recent General Mills 2013 Supplier Summit where Tim Coats, vice president of Worldwide Sourcing for General Mills, kicked off the spring event by sharing his belief in “The Power of We” with a theme of Connect, Create, Elevate! Maerenn Jepsen, an external […]
Is Your Goal Hairy and Audacious?
Do you have a BHAG? Or several? If you or your company don’t have a “big hairy audacious goal” perhaps it is time to find one and get to work on it. Or maybe you simply need to prioritize from that long wish list of corporate goals and recognize one or two as your BHAG. […]
Nobel Economist Ronald Coase, Giant of TCE, Dies at 102
Nobel laureate Ronald Coase, a giant of modern economic thought and whose ideas about transaction costs and the nature of companies are a foundation of Vested principles, died this week in Chicago. He was 102. In “The Nature of the Firm,” which was developed and written while he was still an undergraduate and published in 1937, Professor […]
CH2M Hill’s Run as a Top Environmental Firm Began with Rocky Flats
When I saw that CH2M Hill is the top U.S. environmental firm, according to Engineering News-Record’s Top 200 Environmental Firms list, I had to smile. Not that I was surprised in the least, but because it confirmed what I already knew about the company, given its history with the Rocky Flats Nuclear Production facility. What […]
Taking Stock of Getting to We
Earlier this month I had the opportunity and great privilege to chat briefly with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Radio’s Taking Stock program about the publication of our latest Vested book, Getting to We. To say that I’m enthusiastic about this book and its paradigm-shifting approach to the process of negotiating agreements is a distinct understatement. […]
Partnering Strategies Matter—Big Time!
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, my feelings about the importance of true partnerships in business relationships are obvious. It’s no surprise to find more and more companies jumping on the “partnership” and “collaboration” bandwagon. A recent report from IBM Center for Applied Insights, “Why partnering strategies matter,” underscores the […]
China and Outsourcing: Do the Math!
There’s an ebb and flow to most outsourcing relationships as well as their locations, and China is no exception. Much has been written lately about outsourcing to China as becoming a thing of the past. I would not go that far for several reasons—including its large and still relatively cheap labor force and the huge […]
Collaboration: Trending at No. 1
Adrian Gonzalez, founder and president of Adelante SCM and director of Logistics Viewpoints, recently talked about his favorite presentation at the Crossroads 2013: Supply Chain as Future Enabler conference at MIT, and collaboration was a big star. His post gave the fave-rave to A Vision of Supply Chain Evolution by Tom Linton, Chief Procurement and […]
Contracts: Going for the Long-term
Most contracts are fairly short-term and the general consensus, according to Tim Cummins, president and CEO of IACCM, is that their average duration is about four years. Tim, an expert and prolific writer on contracting issues, adds further that existing contracts are renewed or restructured at a rate of about 48 percent. There is some […]
What If…?
I wanted to share this brilliant and inspiring video on team building that, in less than three minutes, nicely sums up Vested’s what-in-it-for-we philosophy. The video starts with a series of “What if I?” messages, then segues into an equally awesome series of “What if we?” questions. Here’s the video by SpiritualCommerce (set to the […]
