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Procurement decisions don’t fail inside procurement. They fail when real-world conditions hit them. That’s what we assess.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day, and Neither Was its Supply Chain by Kelly Barner
February 11, 2015
Editor’s Note: There were any number of witty (or supposedly witty – I will let you decide) introductions that crossed my mind when I first read this post by Kelly Barner. Beyond the catchy “Rome wasn’t built in a day” used in her title, there is “when in Rome” because there is certainly something that […]
Posted in: Guest Posting
Coupa’s acquisition of Zen Purchase: The perfect marriage of two trailblazers? by Jon Hansen
February 11, 2015
In announcing the launch of Procurement Insights’ New Wave Company program in 2014, I had made frequent references to the blog’s early days in which I focused on covering companies I believed were going to one day become major players. In 2010, I interviewed Rob Bernshteyn on my radio show, in which Coupa was featured as being one of […]
Posted in: Commentary, Year in the Life Series
You know that you are likely a supplier bully when . . . by Jon Hansen
February 10, 2015
I just read an interesting post on the Nipendo blog titled “Supplier Bullying: Cutting The Branch You Are Sitting On” by Eran Livneh. It actually reminded me of a post I wrote back in 2007 and have revisited many times since, regarding Walmart’s treatment of its suppliers. In particular the Vlasic Pickles case study. “Finally, […]
Posted in: Commentary
Strategic Sourcing And The Road To Transformational Leadership
February 6, 2015
Originally posted on Relational Contracting Intelligence Blog:
In his recent post titled Who Are Procurement’s New Leaders, Jon Hansen referenced a reader comment that “business strategy and traditional procurement strategy are often misaligned.” As a result, “necessary leadership talent must synthesize the best . . . and discard the obsolete to create something new.” In…
Posted in: Uncategorized
Procurement’s silent majority or influential minority? by Jon Hansen
February 6, 2015
In the past couple of weeks I have written about the old timers of purchasing, and the emerging Generation Next procurement professionals, focusing on the seemingly inseparable chasm between what once was, and the new reality of today. However, I did not immediately take into account that there is a third less vocal but increasingly influential […]
Posted in: Commentary
Freightos wants to know: Are you ready to go stealth mode?
February 4, 2015
2014 New Wave Company Year In The Life winner Freightos, has developed a new user interface for a full-fledged online marketplace that they are planning on launching in 2015. They are looking for procurement professionals who might be interested in taking part in a quick 15 minute interview while testing their new user interface. I […]
Posted in: Commentary
Gut Instinct, Sore Knee Joints and Other Ways To Analyze Your Business Strategy by Jon Hansen
February 4, 2015
Originally posted on Procurement Insights EU Edition:
But where’s the water? The other day, I received a press release from Rosslyn Analytics under the heading Business leaders are ‘still relying on gut instinct’ as only 23% of organizations closely align overall strategy to available data. Based on the company’s “Big Data: The Art of the Possible” report,…
Posted in: Uncategorized
Teaching an old dog new tricks or the challenges of adopting a new mindset by Jon Hansen
February 3, 2015
“One last point – I would contend that some of the change in “new” procurement professionals are not just recent college graduates. The change in approach includes those of us who are new to the profession – like me on a 2nd career (and well-out of college days!!! ) . We don’t hold to the […]
Posted in: Commentary
The Devil was in the Details at Target Canada by Kelly Barner
January 28, 2015
On January 15th, Target announced that they would be closing all 133 of their locations and distribution facilities in Canada. The failure was attributed in large part to problems stemming from their supply chain operation. A BloombergBusinessWeek article on the retailer’s decision stated, “The company has admitted it botched management of its supply chain in […]
Posted in: Guest Posting
Procurement Insights 
Do client references really matter? by Jon Hansen
February 12, 2015
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“When asked what impact our customer references had on the decision, the client indicated they had never called them.” – Why Customer References are a Gigantic Missed Opportunity in Selecting a CMS by Jeff Cram Last June 18th I wrote a post titled Translating Irrelevance: Why vendor “market share news” has little value in a practical sense. In that […]