Early Indication: Things Are Brewing
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…
Embedded – Reprise
Another big procurement issue is how to collaborate and engage with the business. This article looks at one way strategy that can help achieve both: Today we will focus on…
CPOs: Think Globally, Network Locally – Reprise
Since this article’s first run, Boston CPOs have begun meeting on occasion. How about the CPOs in other major cities/regions? The CPOs in the Bay Area have an informal group…
The CPO “Bump” – Reprise
Our retrospective continues with a few CPO strategies While the cost of some marketing programs can be excessive, effective campaigns can pay huge dividends for many years. One of the…
What’s Past is Prologue! – Reprise
Editor's Note: To celebrate our first anniversary, we are sharing a few of our favorites from year one. This article kicked it all off…. We think it holds true today.…
ROA – Return on Human Capital
If Streisand is correct in saying that “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” I want to go to Vegas with an entourage of Chief Procurement…
ROA – Improve Your Return on Technology Assets (Strat. Sourcing)
Two years ago this month, I caught up with the Chief Procurement Officer of a US Federal agency about her plans for the upcoming year and our discussion turned to…
ROA – Inventory
Our original Return on Assets (“ROA”) article generally used a literal definition of assets (as opposed to an accounting one) - assets: things of value. Improving ROA is then asking,…
The CFO and the CPO: One World
Perhaps it is because I spent the first half of my career in finance as a consultant and banker and the second half of my career dedicated to procurement (or…
Case Study – Procurement Transformation in the Mid-market (Healthcare)
Since launching Ardent Partners this summer, I have been spending a good deal of time introducing the firm to the different solution providers in the supply management space. One of…