Just as we get into the holiday mood and enjoy chocolates the focus is on where the cocoa beans come from that go into making chocolate that brings so much holiday cheer to the affluent- worldwide. The BBC Story highlights Nestle's efforts in trying to bring traceability to the labor aspects of the cocoa beanContinue reading “Supply Chain CSR: tracing child labor in growing cocoa beans for chocolates”
Category Archives: Food industry
The 16$ muffin and understanding B2G and B2B buying and payment processes
The 16$ muffin has outraged Americans given that you can get a fairly decent muffin for about $2. In fact, Senator Chuck Grassley has asked for "heads to roll" and BBC has run a story of how impossible it is to come up with a$16 muffin. Given the B2B and also B2G focus of thisContinue reading “The 16$ muffin and understanding B2G and B2B buying and payment processes”
America Invents Act 2011 to become law next week: how it might create jobs
President Obama's jobs speech of Thursday signalled the massive reform of US patent law to spur innovation and jobs. It's intriguing that lots of main stream media is criticizing the law given that it was passed in a bipartisan fashion (for a change 89 for and 9 against in the Senate). The mere fact ofContinue reading “America Invents Act 2011 to become law next week: how it might create jobs”
Hurricane Irene: understanding risk management and supply chains for the uninterested
Even if you are professionally uninterested in supply chains or risk management you should have heard of Hurricane Irene hitting the US East Coast including New York. The very unusual prospect of New York tunnels being flooded (with animation being shown on several TV stations ) has cancelled trains,airplanes and closed colleges and there isContinue reading “Hurricane Irene: understanding risk management and supply chains for the uninterested”
Feedback is really important in the ICT Model of input-process-output
Given the interest of blog readers on the ICT model based on a past post, it’s important to emphasize the value of feedback to the inputs and process part of the ICT model. To recall the ICT (or Information Communication Technology) model is depicted as input—> process—> output with a feedback loop to input from the quality of the output as depicted in the ICT diagram above. The feedback is really important.
German E. Coli outbreak and regulating a global fresh food supply chain
The German E. Coli outbreak seems to be one of the first fresh food global supply chain problems that have come to the fore. Germany imports 40% of its cucumbers from Spain a total of 182,000 tonnes a year. Initially, German authorities blamed Spanish cucumber contamination for the deadly outbreak and now the Germans areContinue reading “German E. Coli outbreak and regulating a global fresh food supply chain”
B2B Marketers think “value” while Supply Managers think “risk” – the Risk-Value Matrix and Kraljic Model
B2B marketers think about providing value and innovation to their customers. These include existing customers and also new customers. How can our product or service add more value to the buying company’s business? is the question B2B marketers constantly ask themselves, their teams and their own organizations. Innovation is somewhat spurred by this organizational motive to provide “value” to its customers.
Internet increases complexity for the supply chain
The Internet is great as it allows search engines (Google,Yahoo,MSN etc.) and social media (Facebook,Twitter) to create algorithms that deliver personalised content to the Internet user. Based on this highly segmented audience search engines and social media can now provide highly segmented and "customized" advertising targets. Advertising is cost efficient and highly effective because nowContinue reading “Internet increases complexity for the supply chain”
The connection between gas prices and innovation – share what you learn for every trip
The current US pain at the pump in the form of high gas prices impacts innovation. Let me explain how. Even with all the social media and Internet that last bit of crucial understanding and "feel" for something does happen by being there. This has a lot to do with the "sticky" nature of knowledge.Continue reading “The connection between gas prices and innovation – share what you learn for every trip”
What can you learn at a McDonald’s job or McJob ? Plenty…
With 50,000 jobs on National Hiring Day there were long lines of applicants today at McDonald's what with high persisting unemployment. The McJob is mocked in popular culture because it is seen as "flipping burgers" or saying hackneyed cross-selling lines like "Do you want fries with that?" Given that McDonald's have come forward with jobsContinue reading “What can you learn at a McDonald’s job or McJob ? Plenty…”