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| #329 - The best joke at the annual CIPSA conference 2011 |
| The Buyer - Thursday, December 15, 2011 |
For a festive farewell, at the end of the year, it seems yuletidingly
appropriate to repeat the best joke from this year's annual CIPSA
conference:
At the very end of the 7th CIPSA annual conference last October, at the close of the final plenary session on day two, as has become customary it seems, the biggest prize from the sponsor's giveaways and competitions is drawn from the hat.
This year gold sponsor Fleetcare had donated a Vesper motorised scooter, and the Top Ten players of the arcade driving
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| #328 - Dilbert defines Procurement as the order-prevention department |
| The Buyer - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 |
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Everyone in business is familiar with the old business cliche of a "sales prevention department." It is used as a label for unco-operative and ill-focussed teams. Hindering the client, as their focus remains entirely on their internal process & goals - and never on actually meeting the customer need: the antithesis of customer-focussed.
But it seems, having witnessed the malady first-hand and so often,
Procurement has learnt the trick well and, unwittingly maybe, learnt the art of true 'demand managem
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| #327 - Category Week the pick for 2012 |
| The Buyer - Wednesday, December 14, 2011 |
The new CIPSA Conferences programme for 2012 is inserted in the current issue of PP magazine www.pponline.com.au listing the slightly less ambitious programme of 14 major events set for
next year 2012 - not the 23 major events delivered by them during 2011.
Even The Buyer couldn't manage to attend that many..
www.cipsaconferences.com.au
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| #326 - The TEN most surprising things about business travel |
| The Buyer - Tuesday, December 13, 2011 |
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The recent listing in THE AGE of the ten most surprising things about thrifty travelling, spurred The Buyer into action, at the end of another long year as a business traveller:.
http://www.theage.com.au/travel/blogs/the-backpacker/top-10-most-surprising-things-about-travelling-20110821-1j519.html
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| #325 - The Seven Summits of Procurement |
| The Buyer - Saturday, December 10, 2011 |
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Mountaineering legend has it that there are seven summits. The seven hardest peaks to climb in the world, if not the highest. There are no gold medals in mountaineering - completing all seven makes a champion mountaineer, http://7summits.com and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Summits
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| #324 - How to buy from India |
| The Buyer - Thursday, December 08, 2011 |
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Like any other country, India has its mysteries. And only slowly are they being revealed as India moves towards becoming a genuine economic powerhouse.
It is lazy to think of India as just "the next China", as there is much more to it than that. India has more [English speaking graduates than the USA has children].
More than anything, even China, India screams opportunity. The PR issues last year between Australia and India were particularly ill timed.
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| # 323 - How to know your suppliers are at least trying to source ethically |
| The Buyer - Wednesday, December 07, 2011 |
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The recent ZARA case study, where slave labour was apparently being utilised by one of their suppliers in Brazil [see previous blog #289], raised a key question yet again – how far does a buyer go to establish that their supply chain is clean and socially responsible? In practical terms then, it boils down to a one simple question; how much valuable resource does an organisation deploy to ensure the supply chain is sound, and that there will be no surprises downstream for their brand?
The a
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| # 322 - P2P the new black - if procurement isn't careful |
| The Buyer - Monday, December 05, 2011 |
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The idea that PROCUREMENT not FINANCE nor OPERATIONS teams should be looking after the P2P process is taking hold it seems.
Harassed finance departments looking to let go are targeting sanctimonious procurement teams for P2P responsibility - it's all about invoices isn't it? Right down your street, surely?
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| #321 - The answer to the most asked question in procurement is 26; not 42 or even 32 |
| The Buyer - Tuesday, November 29, 2011 |
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The most asked question in procurement, according to CIPSA, is this;
Exactly how much should each procurement professional be managing in terms of spend, ideally?
And the answer is hidden in the new CIPSA white-paper written by AT Kearney’s following the boost in Australian data included in their quadrennial Assessment of Excellence in Procurement AEP survey.
http://www.cips.org/en-au/Resources/Publications
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| #320 - What happens to your stuff after you have bought it? |
| The Buyer - Monday, November 28, 2011 |
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The UK defence department has been savaged in the press again – this time for losing stuff. As the headline in the UK newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ put it so succinctly "MoD under fire for 'losing' £7 billion of equipment."
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| #319 - The E7 is the new G7 |
| The Buyer - Sunday, November 27, 2011 |
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Yet another definition of the forthcoming economies popped up in a presentation at RISKY BUSINESS the 7th annual CIPSA conference recently – the E7.
http://www.e7countries.com/
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| #318 - The next great challenge for Procurement – can it truly create EBIT? |
| The Buyer - Friday, November 25, 2011 |
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An interesting and important new debate truly emerged at the 7th annual CIPSA conference RISKY BUSINESS. It started with an established global BPO provider of managed services to procurement alleging loudly and obnoxiously in the PP Awards Dinner after-party that “procurement cannot create EBIT, only generate cash.” His theory was that savings and cost avoidance generated by busy buyers in supplier negotiations get lost in the maelstrom of corporate life and don’t actually make it to the bottom-line &n
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| #317 - Sam Walsh offers SIX hard won lessons for procurement |
| The Buyer - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 |
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The high profile Rio Tinto Australia CEO, Sam Walsh, recently addressed the new CIPSA event – the grandly titled ‘CPO AGENDA Top 100 event’ back at the end of August.
The story is featured on the cover of the new issue of the redesigned cover of Procurement Professional magazine ….. [Issue PP39 Oct 2011] www.pponline.com.au
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| #316 - The relevance of FORCE MAJEURE in procurement contracts |
| The Buyer - Monday, November 21, 2011 |
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The recent QANTAS grounding due to "industrial action" [see previous blog #314] left many stranded passengers belatedly reaching for the small print on the back of their tickets. What were their rights? What compensation is there? How can the airline be penalized? Surely they must fly me on another carrier at their cost right now? A private Lear jet even, it is only reasonable?
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| # 315 - QANTAS demonstrate the ultimate power of the supplier |
| The Buyer - Wednesday, November 16, 2011 |
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The decision by QANTAS to ground their airline on 29th October [reported everywhere by everyone in all media] , was a salutary reminder of the power of the incumbent supplier – as almost everyone uses QANTAS at some point.; including the hapless 100,000 passengers at airports everywhere who were quoted as being directly affected by the stoppage.
Putting valued clients “ON STOP” is a tactic of last resort for concerned suppliers. Usually there are only two principal
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