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 […]
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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 […]
Avoid Danger: Get Outsourcing Right
The title of the op-ed piece on the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge site was probably meant—and destined—to get a rise out of the outsource community: “How to Do Away with the Dangers of Outsourcing.” I mean is it really possible to “do away” with the dangers inherent in any human or business endeavor? And […]
I-5 Skagit Bridge Rebuild an Opportunity to Apply Vested Principles
When I heard about the I-5 bridge collapse on the Skagit River in Mount Vernon, WA I thought about a lot of things—injuries, safety, infrastructure. But with everyone safe, I turned my attention to how Gov. Jay Inslee and the Washington State Department of Transportation now have a real opportunity to show effective leadership by using […]
Gaming with Game Theory
What happens when a behavioral ecologist uses a game theory exam to test his students’ proficiency at cheating? Even better, what happens when the same UCLA professor, Peter Nonacs, then confronts his students with a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma to decide their final grades? Both Nonacs and the students learned important lessons about Game […]
Christensen: Capitalism Needs Work (Pt. 2)
Last time I talked about Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation as described in his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. Being a fan for several years now, I can’t wait for his new book, The Capitalist’s Dilemma to come out, which basically calls for a large dose of disruptive innovation for macro-economics and the free market […]
Christensen: Transforming Innovation and Capitalism
I can’t believe it has been 16 years since Clayton Christensen rocked the business world with his groundbreaking book, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The subtitle of the book is revealing: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. His book was a bestseller in 1997 and received the Global Business Book Award for the best business […]
