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UK Public Sector Procurement News by Colin Cram

August 24, 2012

UK public sector procurement has been in the news the past two months. The Scottish government (no, Scotland is not an independent country, but it does have a lot of autonomy, rather like the states in the USA) has passed a bill merging its 8 police forces. A detailed business case concluded that merger, as […]

Is Procurement Trying Too Hard? by Kelly Barner

August 22, 2012

One of the interesting stories to come out of the 2012 London Olympics is that some of the badminton teams were disqualified for trying to LOSE matches. That’s not exactly what you expect from the most competitive athletes in the world in any sport. They weren’t trying to lose because they wanted to go home, […]

STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA by Colin Cram

August 1, 2012

The bankruptcy of Stockton, California, is a stark reminder of what can befall cities that mismanage their finances. There are some similarities with Greece – making unfundable commitments to workers over wages, spending on ill-conceived projects such as the $35n spent on a city hall that remains unused and is now infested by rats, and […]

Austerity Measures: Coming to a Company Near You? by Kelly Barner

July 24, 2012

Today’s economic updates are full of sour news – we hear about faltering stability in the Euro Zone caused by high debt to GDP ratios and high rates of unemployment in Greece, Spain and Italy. North America is dealing with their own economic contraction: both the U.S. and Canada face increasing unemployment, slow job creation, […]

Who should drive the procurement of innovation policy? by Dr. John Rigby

July 18, 2012

We have got to an interesting point now in the debate over the procurement of innovation. The major question for policy makers is who should be implementing this policy. As I said on the show the other week, pre-commercial procurement is at the moment relatively little used but it does form the basis for for […]

GAS Dependency by Colin Cram

July 16, 2012

Isn’t it time that politicians started to think more like top class procurement professionals? The Times newspaper in the UK, on 30 June, had an article by Tim Webb, its energy editor, about how the ‘Russian stranglehold on UK gas supplies is set to get tighter’. ‘Britain’s dependence on imported Russian gas is set to […]

4 Procurement Professional Development Profiles, Part I By Charles Dominick, SPSM, SPSM2

July 9, 2012

Editor’s Note: Charles is founder, president and chief procurement officer of Next Level Purchasing, which offers the SPSM (Senior Professional in Supply Management) Certification. Be sure to check out Charles’ Purchasing Certification Blog. I was recently reflecting on my final year of college. During this time, I was interviewing for jobs. At that time, the […]

We Come Bearing ‘Bred Heifers’ by Kelly Barner

June 27, 2012

In the late 1930’s, Dan West, a farmer from Indiana, was serving as the director of a relief program in Spain. The country had been ravaged by years of war – World War I and the Spanish Civil War – and the needs for basic provisions were urgent. West realized that supplies of food from […]

For a Taste of Your Whiskey, I’ll Give You Some Advice by Kelly Barner

June 14, 2012

Good old Kenny Rogers, he gave us some great advice through the lyrics of the ‘The Gambler’: advice that stands true beyond the gaming table. Sometimes the best advice comes from the least expected place, and I have some advice for procurement professionals – from sales. Every week, I take a break from supply management […]

The Evolution of Strategic Sourcing by Joe Payne

June 1, 2012

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit in on some roundtables at the Corporate United Synergy conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. The majority of attendees were strategic sourcing and procurement professionals primarily focused on indirect spend categories, many at companies with $1 billion or more in annual sales. The underlying theme of most […]