This content was published on the ATSC blog on May 25, 2020 The word ‘chain’ evokes images of metal links locked together, but this analogy has not been apt for a long time. Terms such as network, eco...

The events count is back up as we return to a full five day workweek, and the calendar looking forward shows no evidence of a quiet summer! Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.

“There’s a false dichotomy between cost and safety. Are we willing and able to account for the many costs of not having a quality operation: lack of cooperation, poor leadership, waste, and incidents and accidents? If we really and truly account for them, then safety can pay for itself. Getting it wrong is more expensive than doing it right the first time.” – Capt. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger

There are three in-person events taking place this week: the Proactis Spend Control Summit in London, Procurement Leaders’ Europe Forum in Amsterdam, and ISM-New York’s procurement appreciation e...

This content was published on the ATSC Blog on July 27, 2020 Since risk is a reality in business, and ‘certainty’ is an extremely expensive proposition, an enterprise’s appetite for risk has always be...

This is the third week of the month so you know what that means – Dial P for Procurement will be broadcasting LIVE from Supply Chain Now on Tuesday from 12 – 1pm ET. This month I will be joined, as al...

 Supply Chain Risk, by John Manners-Bell, provides a structured look at risk by establishing a series of intersecting dimensions. First the author outlines external risk categories: Environmental...

We’ve all heard the saying, “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.” Choosing to dual source a category means using two (or more) suppliers to provide identical copies of a product or service. Many c...

If there was any doubt that managing the supply chain is also an exercise in managing risk, just ask someone who works in procurement – particularly the world of direct procurement. These professional...

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey struck a significant blow to the Houston, Texas metro area, home to the sixth largest import terminal in the world as well as all of the shipping lanes in the Gulf Coa...

As we turn the corner into March, we have a whole new set of economic numbers to look forward to – and hopefully they’ll give us good news. The ISM Manufacturing Report on Business will be out on the ...

The Dial P for Procurement livestream will be on-air for the second time this week, on Tuesday, February 16th from 12-1pm ET. My co-host, Supply Chain Now’s Scott Luton, and I will be hosting Jeffrey ...

On the one hand, all of this week's events are focused on supply chain disruption - on the other hand they are all empowering, and solution oriented. If you attend one of our webinar and learn somethi...

In addition to the recommended webinars listed below, there are two other dates this week I’d like to call your attention to... On Tuesday, I’ll be releasing the October ISM-NY Report on Business at 9...

“Risk management is not a purchasing initiative. It’s an initiative and philosophy that has to be embraced by the entire organization.”

-- Rose Kelly-Falls Senior VP Supply Chain Risk, Rapid Ratings and event panelist

This week’s webinar notes are from a February 13^th webinar hosted by IASTA and featuring a panel of speakers. An on demand version of the event is available on their website.

This week’s featured webinar was hosted by Sourcing Interests Group and presented by Neo Group, a services firm focused on gaining efficiencies through low-cost country providers and outsourcing in general. The focus of the event was global sourcing governance, and how, when leveraged appropriately, it can help companies go ‘from good to great’.

These notes are from a June 23, 2015 webinar hosted by Sourcing Industry Group and presented by Louis Ferretti, a Project Executive at IBM. While only SIG members can view the recording on demand, you can catch Ferretti at their Global Executive Summit in October.

I knew I wanted to attend this event as soon as I heard Watson, the artificial intelligence computer that competed against two of the best ever Jeopardy! contestants in 2011 and won, would be featured. If that kind of AI could be applied to supply chain risk management, just think of what might be possible! In this case, IBM presented from the buy side perspective, although many companies are familiar with them on the sell side. Watson was applied in the management of IBM’s own spend.

These webinar notes are from an October 8th webinar on ‘Supply Chain Risk Management: How to Turn Worst Practices into Best Practices’ hosted by SIG and presented by Rolf Zimmer and Laura Enny at riskmethods. The webinar can be viewed on demand here.

The event opened with a look at what riskmethods considered to be the top megatrends: globalization, outsourcing, digitization, and climate change. Running through all of these trends is the changing role that suppliers, and therefore the supply chain as a whole, plays in our ability to understand complexity and the elevated risk levels and additional risk types it leads to.

Procurement has a tendency to think of supply chain complexity as improving the flow of goods, services, funds, and information between suppliers or tiers of the supply base. Although this expanded perspective is an improvement over where we have been in the past, it is still too simplistic. As Zimmer pointed out in the webinar, supply chains are not just lines from point A to point B, but complex networked structures where half of all disruptions take place beyond the first tier of the supply base.

For being the last ‘official’ week of summer, there are quite a few events listed – including two strong late additions, one from the Economist Intelligence Unit and another from IACCM. I’m not listing the EIU event on Mexico as one of my core recommendations, but I’ve already registered to attend – and for 2 reasons: 1. I’m a news junkie and want to get a business perspective on Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or “AMLO”), Mexico’s new leader, and 2. anyone in supply chain in North America owes it to themselves to understand the implications of such major a political shift.

If you’re planning a little further out, I recommend “Taming the Long Tail - The Strategic Opportunity in Indirect Spend” from SIG and Bonfire on September 13th at 1pm ET. This webinar touches on a theme I’ve been thinking and writing about for a while now, that the path to strategic procurement goes straight through (not away from) our tactical responsibilities.

BTW: If you haven’t already, sign up for our mailing list to be sure you get my weekly recommendations in your Inbox each Monday.

There are two points worth noting in this week’s calendar. The first is the leap year giving us one last day in February. The other is that time is running out to secure a spot at the 2016 CPO Rising Summit being held in Boston on March 29^th and 30^th. Click here for more information and to get the Buyers Meeting Point discount code to save $250 on your registration fee.