In part 1 of this Spend Matters PRO series, we looked at what “design for supply” (DFS) is and positioned it as a means to connect/align demand, supply and product. We also highlighted that DFS is not a new practice. Procurement has been, to some extent and varying degrees for…

Ensuring that a product finds its customers through its form and function, delights them, and differentiates itself from competing products is a critical part of the design process. However, there are many other design requirements to include and balance that have nothing to do with form and function, and they…

Framing the CO2 challenge and how to evaluate vendors that can help — Beyond pure environmental concerns, procurement and supply chain organizations sit at a nexus of difficult, seemingly conflicting options around price, lead times, quality and risk. But the challenge of reducing carbon emissions is not a zero sum game; rather, it perfectly captures the nature of ESG and sustainability integration into…

“Sustainability goals cannot be measured only in terms of profit and loss. It must also be measured in terms of the well-being of billions of people and the health of our planet.” — John Elkington in “25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s Why It’s Time…

Why it matters now and how the market is responding — Last year and 2021 so far have been extraordinary for all of us as Covid impacted us in many ways, both in our personal and in our professional lives. And, even if the pandemic is not yet behind us, there is a lot to learn from it. Perhaps the clearest…

Part II: The people side of things… — By Bertrand Maltaverne In the 1st part of these two series, I explored why autonomous Procurement is a dumb idea when looking at it as if it meant that machines should be replacing people. In this 2nd part, I want to…

Part I: The technological side of things… — By Bertrand Maltaverne An article inspired by a recent Linkedin post from the excellent Matthias Gutzmann… TL;DR For sure, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and the latest advances in AI (among other ones) are transforming and will deeply transform work…

The current Coronavirus crisis should be a wake-up call for Supply Chain and Procurement professionals! — By Bertrand Maltaverne Almost a year ago, I wrote about the side effects that poorly designed KPIs could have: What Is The Cure To The Side Effects Of KPIs? If there is one topic in business literature that has been covered exhaustively, it is Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). But if you’re not…medium.com

Despite the general consensus that risk management is important, recent studies have found that many companies still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do… — By Bertrand Maltaverne “The Supply Chain stuff is tricky!” — Elon Musk at Code Conference in 2016. When someone like Elon Musk says that something is tricky, it means something! The examples that Musk mentions in the video show that modern supply chains are becoming more global and more…