KPO is back in the news

Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is back in the news with estimates ranging from $10-17 Billion/year volume by 2010. I ran the first ever  MBA elective on "Global Outsourcing of Knowledge Based Services" in Fall 2005 – and a  CAPM seminar in April 2006, with the same title. While well attended, I think KPO  classes andContinue reading “KPO is back in the news”

Supply Chain a Market Strategy differentiator

I was rather pleased to read the Aberdeen report , see the CNN summary here. 56% of the over 800 firms surveyed felt that supply chain management was a market strategy differentiator and could make all the difference in customer satisfaction and service apart from delivering sustainability in a firm’s overall operations. This seems fairlyContinue reading “Supply Chain a Market Strategy differentiator”

From a public phone booth in India

My winter break travels in India (January 2008) turned out to be great. Visited Delhi,Mumbai(Bombay),Goa and Kolkata (Calcutta)and got the distinct feel that the economy was on the move. Yes ITES ( Information Technology Enabled Services) are important and this sector feeds the notion of India as the global powerhouse of IT services. But whatContinue reading “From a public phone booth in India”

Corporate Social Responsibility

Last week my article in the Inside Supply Management of December 2007 appeared in print. This is a short piece on Corporate Social Responsibility and what the supply manager can do to contribute to Corporate Social Responsibility. I talk about three areas first the Global Supply Chain and quality problems (eg. toy recalls), supplier diversityContinue reading “Corporate Social Responsibility”

Muhtar Kent at Coke and Indra Nooyi at Pepsi and the Bottom of Pyramid

Muhtar Kent is the new CEO at Coke. This blog had commented on the changes at Coke earlier this year and the elevation of Mr. Kent to CEO is indeed a great development. Not only is Muhtar Kent, of Turkish origin,  eminently qualified but his elevation signals Coke's  diversity  comeback . It also makes goodContinue reading “Muhtar Kent at Coke and Indra Nooyi at Pepsi and the Bottom of Pyramid”

e-Sourcing Workshop by Jim Kelly

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf The e-Sourcing Workshop  by Jim Kelly (of JVKG  )  turned out to be brilliant (check out the photos above).Here was someone who had worked for many years in procurement  and was able to bring out the practicalities of technology adoption in the automation of requisition to procure and pay in a variety of industries.Continue reading “e-Sourcing Workshop by Jim Kelly”

Is your CEO more willing to meet customers than suppliers?

For quite some time I have been trying to figure out the practical differences between supplier  and customer relationship orientations in B2B relationships. In other words, the differences between upstream and downstream relationships that a firm must have. Firms are becoming more and more alert to having good supplier relationships having realized that they needContinue reading “Is your CEO more willing to meet customers than suppliers?”

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Here is to wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! A great bit of good news this morning was that airports were much less chaotic than expected. Better preparation and planning by passengers,airlines and airports seem to be helping. Although the traditional reason of celebrating thanksgiving, i.e. the harvest seems to have been overtaken by the needContinue reading “Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday”

How Relationship Marketing is Changing Procurement Management

Sometimes its just a quick remark that clarifies difficult issues and that happened with me yesterday when a very competent procurement professional mentioned that their company did not do much procurement activities i.e. bidding,negotiation because they preferred to stay with the same supplier. So, there was not much growth in procurement as a career… ThisContinue reading “How Relationship Marketing is Changing Procurement Management”

Mature Global design Strategies improve profits

I was rather happy to read the Aberdeen report’s summary which highlights that global product design and development leads to reduction in product development time and time to market while allowing the protection of intellectual property through Digital Rights Management. This blog and my research has been investigating these issues for some time and IContinue reading “Mature Global design Strategies improve profits”