Category: Procurement

No firm is an island: Why buyers should probe a supplier’s network

For any shopper who noticed how the price of hamburger and lettuce jumped after gas prices soared last year, this should come as no surprise: Buyers eventually feel the pinch when their suppliers’ expenses surge. The reason? Buyers and sellers operate within networks that exceed the one-on-one, buyer-seller bond. That’s why Thomas Choi, a professor of supply chain management at the W. P. Carey School of Business, thinks supply chain professionals would be wise to look beyond the supplier to its supply network. Without it, he argues, buyers are not examining all the factors affecting the strength and reliability of the suppliers they choose. Such shortsightedness leaves buyers vulnerable to supply troubles and missed opportunities.

Using metrics to enhance purchasing

Detailed metrics not only help purchasing departments measure and analyze performance — they provide data that can spur organizational and procedural changes and help companies proactively prepare for the unexpected.

Fugitive Denim: Globalization tales of the traveling pants

What do you look for when you buy a pair of jeans? Color? Cut? Designer label? Price tag? One thing is certain: Even if you buy what you think is the same make/label/origin, year after year, it is an entirely different item with a brand-new geographic story. If you want to get a handle on the facts and fancy surrounding this ubiquitous icon of American consumerism, check out Rachel Louise Snyder’s "Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade." Chances are, you’ll never buy a pair of jeans again without recalling the amazing stories contained in her book.

An in-depth look at the modern CPO

Today’s Chief Purchasing Officers are well-paid, well-educated, and well on their way to finally earning CEO respect, according to a new report from the W. P. Carey School’s CAPS Research. Thomas Hendrick, Ph.D., professor emeritus of supply chain management at the W. P. Carey School, examines these and other attributes of today’s CPOs to better understand the men and women at the top of the corporate procurement field.

Podcast: How strategic sourcing became the golden goose

Strategic sourcing, including early supplier involvement and outsourcing, provides significant competitive advantage to companies and represents a fundamental change in the way firms drive the bottom line. Thomas Choi, professor of supply chain management at the W. P. Carey School of Business, looks back 20 years to explain how the relatively mechanical procurement function evolved into supply chain management, a sophisticated approach to managing cost, increasing quality and driving profitability.

Act fast! CPOs have little time to deliver big results

After watching dozens of chief purchasing officers come and go as the leaders of supply chain operations in 30 of the world’s largest companies, researchers came to a simple conclusion: The CPO’s chair has become a true corporate hot seat. The study, "Supply Leadership Changes," was conducted on the behalf of CAPS Research, a nonprofit research organization supported by the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Institute of Supply Management.