Happy Groundhog Day!
125 years ago today a small group in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, found a groundhog, named him Phil and crowned “Punxsutawney Phil” as the one, “official” weather “prognosticator of all prognosticators,”who is able to determine if spring is coming early or later each year. Legend has it that if the groundhog comes out of its den on February 2 and sees its shadow, winter will continue for six more weeks.
According to some, the US/Canadian tradition of Groundhog Day was started by German settlers in the early 18th Century, who used a groundhog instead of the badgers and bears (yes, bears, you read that correctly) that their ancestors used to get an early indication on the arrival of spring. Now, according to “weather lore,”[i] the German tradition may or may not have melded early Christian, Roman, and Pagan traditions together. Apparently all of these groups felt that early February was an especially good time to look for early indicators.
I’m not going to weigh in on the true origin of Groundhog Day debate and who should or should not get credit for this “holiday.” I also refuse to open the debate as to which groundhog is, in fact, the best early indicator of spring’s arrival (here’s a list of other prominent groundhogs)
But, while I attempt to stay above the fray, I do believe that we are starting to see some clear, early indicators of a few things that are really starting to brew. Here are four:
Good Things Brewing at CPO Rising
If last month was any indication, CPO Rising will have a very good year. January’s traffic on the site more than doubled that of September. Thank you for your readership and support!
I am also very pleased that last quarter saw the addition of two site sponsors, Hubwoo and BravoSolution (more on this in a future article). While I have enjoyed writing articles on this site more than any other project that we tackled in 2010, their support serves to ease many of the late nights I find myself writing articles. I am a bit surprised that we still have one open sponsor slot, but I expect that will change soon – one reason why – is the very powerful series that is currently in the works. I believe our readers, both old and new, will find it extremely interesting. This series was a little delayed because…
Good Things Are Also Brewing at Ardent Partners
Yes, Ardent Partners had a fantastic 2010 and we’re off to a flying start in 2011. January was a busy month and a great indicator of things to come.
One – Distinguished industry analyst and “Pro to Know,” Vishal Patel, joined the firm and has hit the ground running. I worked with Vishal in the past and I can honestly say that of the many, many analysts that I have worked with in my career, very few distinguished themselves to the level and degree that Vishal did during our time working together. His insight and expertise allowed him to identify important trends and opportunities that reshaped many of our technology clients’ product roadmaps and go-to-market strategies while his early career experience working with procurement and accounts payable groups gave him instant credibility in the market. His past indicates a successful future and I’m excited to be a part of it. Please join me in welcoming him to Ardent.
You can read about Vishal’s background here and coverage of our recent announcement here
Two – I published a new research report, The CFO and the CPO: One World, Two Worldviews which “looks at the opportunities and challenges facing these two C-Level leaders and their departments and makes a series of actionable recommendations that can help improve enterprise performance in the near-term and help build a foundation for a productive and thriving, long-term finance-procurement partnership” (more on this report in several upcoming articles). It is one of my favorite topics and I think John Paterson, CPO at IBM and “friend of the site” nailed it when he told me, during the course of writing the report that, “the CFO-CPO relationship might be the most important relationship that exists or needs to exist within the enterprise.”
Three – We have finalized our 2011 research agenda and will be posting news on that over at Ardent’s site very soon. eSourcing and ePayables are up first – solution providers please be on the look-out for a note from Ardent.
A Storm is Brewing
Maybe more than just brewing, but in Boston, we’re in the midst of a back-to-back-to-back Nor’easter (slang for big snowstorm that hits the East Coast of the US). As this image clearly indicates, the US is dealing with one of the largest winter storms in its history. My guess is that many groundhogs will be snowed out today.
Here is the live streaming video feed of the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney that starts at 7 am Eastern. If you’re interested, click here. [Editor’s note: here is the exciting event as it happened today. Spring is expected to come early; no mention of the huge storms.]
Now, if you missed the streaming video of the live event, I highly recommend this one as a replacement – Bill Murray seems to have captured the mood of many around the world on this Groundhog Day. There’s certainly some storms serious trouble brewing in the Middle East.
Trouble Brewing
One Chief Procurement Officer and “friend of the site” had just spent several weeks in Cairo when I caught up with him in December. This CPO had been very impressed with many aspects of the Egyptian economy, its infrastructure, its proximity to business hubs, and its workers’ business and language skills. Egypt has been a fast-growth locale for BPO providers. I think we have a clear indication that given all of the trouble this past week, BPO providers will begin to aggressively look elsewhere and ultimately move out of Egypt (more on this story in a future article too).
As I hope this article indicates, 2011 will be a fun and interesting year. I hope you are able to spend some part of it here at CPO Rising.
[i] And yes, “Weather lore” is a real thing. Wikipedia defines it as the body of informal folklore related to the prediction of the weather.
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Tagged in: CFO, Chief Procurement Officer, CPO, Predictions
