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…
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…
From the time we called for the Death of Strategic Sourcing in 2010 to all the conferences that we speak at or host, one thing is consistently clear – people choose to define Category Management (CM) as they see fit. I’ve had CPOs tell me that they have…
One of the primary differences between Strategic Sourcing and Category Management is an increased focus on Change Management. One of the most powerful Change Management techniques is Working in Teams. The concept seems simple enough BUT there is an art to teaming as well as…
Last week, we ran a three-day Consulting Skills workshop for a new global client. The CPO who hired us saw the value of requiring her team to function like an internal consulting practice – since one of our roles as Procurement professionals is to be…