“Bad best practice is a terrible thing, because it blocks real best practice from being put in place. And it’s a remarkably common phenomenon. Many times, companies truly believe they have done all th...

Over the past two decades, procurement has made great strides in transitioning from a transactional, back-office function to a strategic, value-adding organization. However, the hard work is far from over. Procurement has fought to get a seat at the table with c-level executives, but now it’s time for procurement to prove that it deserves that seat and can keep it.

This content was posted on the Thinkers 360 Blog on June 13, 2020 What are your predictions for COVID-19 in terms of business and technology implications and recommendations for executives over the ne...

“Although procurement has certainly evolved from its early roots, it still faces challenges in terms of executive recognition, talent management and organizational challenges. Modern enterprises are f...

“To succeed in business is more complex than it used to be - it is no longer economically desirable to control all the components of your customer value proposition.” (p. 6)   Strategic Procureme...

A value chain is the overall set of internal and external resources – human, physical, financial and informational – that require to be marshalled and managed in order to achieve the objectives of any...

This is the first in a two-part series. Part 2 will run on Thursday, September 11th. These days, with tightened budgets and enlarged job expectations, it’s important for CPOs, purchasing managers, and...

If you were to review your own procurement team’s achievements and capabilities from the perspective of a customer, would you buy from you? The principle of using an internal business function which i...

Can buyers create value for customers and reduce costs?   The two main objectives of a buyer in most organizations are: Reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Life Cycle Costs (LCC)Creating va...

This week’s webinar notes are from a recent Directworks webinar titled ‘Creating Shareholder Value from Supplier Relationships’. The webinar and slides are available on demand on Directworks’ site or you can download a whitepaper with the same title that builds on the content of the webinar.

“Crate training uses a dog's natural instincts as a den animal. A wild dog's den is his home, a place to sleep, hide from danger, and raise a family. The crate becomes your dog's den, an ideal spot to snooze or take refuge during a thunderstorm.”

– Humane Society

Procurement professionals are instrumental to the success of organizations. They are accountable for innumerable initiatives ranging from solicitation to evaluation of suppliers plus everything that falls in between. Procurement has a significant impact on the organization as a whole – congealing its spot at the management roundtable.

It was really hard selecting just three events to recommend this week – even the webinars that I’m not highlighting below sound fantastic. They include a Supply Chain Now Radio event on attracting top supply chain talent and an ISM/LexisNexis event on applying the PESTLE framework. We also have ProcureCon Direct taking place in San Diego, CA on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you’re planning a little further out, I recommend “How a Leading Wine Producer Is Making Digital Order Management a Reality” from HfS Research on September 6th at 11am ET. Come for the wine, stay for the digitalization.

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This week’s webinar cover a wide range of topics, with a healthy dose of creativity scooped on top! If you’re planning a little further out, I’d like to invite you to join me for a panel-format webinar hosted by Tradeshift on August 16th at 2pm ET: The 5 Most Expensive Mistakes AP Can Make – And How To Avoid Them. Dena Weinstein, Global Controller at Tradeshift, Richard Porcaro, VP Procurement at ChainIQ and I will discuss how AP teams can become a driving force for positive cash flow. Mark your calendar!

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.

I thought for sure that this week would be devoid of events – between last week’s early schedule and the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. on Thursday. To the contrary, there is a full slate of webinars on a series of hot procurement topics. Click on the title of each event below to view the full description in our events calendar and to connect to their registration pages.