A few predictions for this decade…
For many years now, the arrival of every new calendar sends me into a list-making frenzy that consumes several weeks as I work to develop a set of personal “top 10” lists from the past year (or decade) across various areas of interest. This time, I offer up my Predictions for the New Decade. Forward!
- Many of today’s leading CPOs will move into roles that command greater responsibility and control. During the tough times, a great number of CPOs went above and beyond the call of duty to drive value when it was needed most. The leadership and managerial skills found in many of today’s CPOs leave little doubt that this prediction comes true.
- Social media technology will foster the development of an extraordinary array of professional networks that will dramatically improve the productivity, skills, and knowledge of the average enterprise. If a team of researchers at MIT can build a network to find 10 weather balloons randomly scattered across the US by DARPA in less than 12 hours, imagine what a properly connected and incentivized supply chain partner network can deliver in the way of optimization and innovation.
- The supplier and payment networks that quickly adopt Web 2.0 capabilities and lead the way on interoperability will be the ones most likely to thrive and survive the threat from next-generation networks. Prediction 3A: Next-generation networks will arrive in this decade.
- Go South, young man! (US) or Go East and South, young man! (Europe). While the rise of full BPO supported by Asia-based resources took hold across many functional areas, procurement and accounts payable have been slower to follow. Whether or not full or incremental BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) becomes more widely adopted, CPOs and controllers will be pressured to utilize lower-cost resources. As such, enterprises will leverage new outsourced or in-sourced support from low-cost countries that are located in the same hemisphere. The US will look south to Mexico and Central and South America while Europeans will look to the easternmost parts of the continent and in Northern Africa.
- Although analysts (guilty as charged) and providers have been talking about the “Amazon effect” in supply management solutions for years, the next decade will deliver solutions with true consumer-like functionality and ease-of-use. Consider the benefits from Amazon-like shopping capabilities for the occasional e-procurement user to find and requisition what’s needed or from TurboTax-like guidance capabilities for e-sourcing users to quickly create an eRFx by answering a few questions and linking to historical information.
