One of the first things we learn as Sourcing professionals is to have a clear understanding of the business requirements of your internal business partners. When it comes to technology, “business requirements” usually take the form of a set of features and functionality that are required. We work…
The area of professional services spend continues to be a potential source of incredible value generation for most companies. Yet, most companies approach this spend segment with a very traditional sourcing approach and end up either leaving significant value on the table or in some cases, actually losing…
A new year is already a quarter over and so have the New Year’s resolutions. I am no different than anyone else – I want to lose XX pounds and this is the year I am finally going to do it. In the back of my mind, though,…
We have long been preaching the Value mantra – ever since we called for the death of Strategic Sourcing (SS) many, many years ago. This is also why we changed our Maturity Model and pushed SS down to Level 4 and added the Value Creating Level 5. In…
Transformation is HARD! If you don’t believe that then you have never gone through one. Often, when a transformation fails or an organization does not achieve its’ desired business results, “culture” is identified as the culprit or perhaps the scapegoat so says two Supply Chain Management professors in “Culture Eats Strategy . . . and how to deal with it”.