Imagine this conversation between two fishermen: “How many fish did you catch?” “I saw 4 huge fish.” “But how many did you catch?” “I caught 2 but I saw 4.” “You mean you caught 2 fish?” “OK – I caught 2 fish.” Does it remind…
Peter Smith in Spend Matters recently wrote about his naivety as a young purchasing manager thinking that corruption always happened somewhere else. Well, as he writes, it doesn’t and as Peter points out in a few examples, it is not just in far flung places…
Category management is nothing new. Retailers have used category management your years as a means of synergizing their marketing efforts on entire product groups rather than individual brands. In recent years this practice has been adopted in procurement also. There are 5 main areas of…
That’s right. P2P doesn’t work – at least it doesn’t work most of the time – not because it can’t work – but because it is implemented in a dysfunctional environment. Until you fix the dysfunction, P2P will not deliver. (See: What is Purchase to…
P2P Europe On 16th March 2010, the Council of the European Union agreed on a general approach on a draft directive aimed at simplifying VAT invoicing requirements, in particular as regards electronic invoicing. As reported in this press release, the draft directive sets out to ensure the acceptance…
This is the 21st Century. The secure, ubiquitous global network that is the internet is established as an essential business tool that supports mission critical business processes on an industry wide scale. Messages of all kinds are transmitted between organisations: demand planning information, stock availability,…
Delivering actual, tangible saving to the balance sheet as opposed to claiming theoretical benefits is what separates the men from the boys in purchasing.