SubscribeIf you are feeling the need for community, why not start a group in your area with people of similar interests.
Human beings, by their very nature, love to gather. Yet as much as we crave community, the rigors of real life frequently interfere with our efforts to come together with likeminded individuals. For this reason, [...]
Fellowship with a Purpose-Starting a Group-Thoughts
Leading Procurement Service Provider
Procurement Service Associates has been the leading Procurement Service Provider, producing cost reduction through strategic sourcing and procurement process improvements.
Our services are provided on an On-Demand basis, so that you can supplement your internal resources when and where you see fit.
Below are the services that we provide:
Audit Services
Change Management
Electronic Enablement
Low Cost Country Sourcing
Process Redesign
Procurement Best [...]
Supply Chain News: Manufacturing Sector Looks Bright across the Globe, but can Everyone Bank on Exports? Technology Spending Up 22% so far in 2010
An Outbreak of Positive PMIs; China Experiences Trade Deficit for First Time in Six Years – even as Exports Grow 22%
Although a bit uneven, the manufacturing sector appears to be recovering nicely across the globe, fueling hopes for a lasting and maybe even rapid economic recovery from this point on.
On the increasingly bullish environment, manufacturers [...]
Resistance Equals Persistence
Resistance Equals Persistence
The Wisdom Of Surrender
We can’t get rid of something we don’t want by pushing it away. The more we push away, the more we get pushed back.
We all know the feeling of being repeatedly haunted by the same issue, no matter how we try to ignore it, avoid it, or run away from it. Sometimes it seems that we can get rid of something we don’t want by simply pushing it away. Most of the time, the more we push away, the more we get pushed back. There are laws of physics and metaphysics that explain this phenomenon, which is often summed up in this pithy phrase: That which you resist persists.
Resistance tends to strengthen the energies it attempts to oppose by giving them power and energy to work against. Additionally, resistance keeps us from learning more about what we resist. In order to fully understand something, we must open to it enough to receive its energy; otherwise, we remain ignorant of its lessons. There is a Tibetan story of a monk who retreats to meditate in a cave only to be plagued by demons. He tries everything—chasing, fighting, hiding—to get the demons out of his cave, but the thing that finally works is surrender. He simply lets them have their way with him and only then do they disappear.
Now, this wisdom must be applied practically. We are not meant to get ourselves physically injured. Instead, this story speaks of how, in essence, our demons are inside of us. What plagues and pursues us on an inner level has a way of manifesting itself in our environment in the form of people, events, and issues that appear to be beyond our control. But all these external expressions are reflections of our insides, and it is inside ourselves that we can safely experiment with surrendering to what we fear and dislike. It may feel scary, and we may find ourselves in the company of a lot of resistance as we begin the process of opening to what we fear. But the more we learn to surrender, and the more the demons that plague us disappear in the process, the more courageous we will become.
Ramesh C. Manghirmalani
L’Entrepreneur En Residence at The Global Foundation
Telephone: 1-408-621-3314
What does “Procurement Clerk” do?
We often get asked, “What are typical job responsibilities for Procurement Clerk ? ”
Here you go:
Procurement Clerk’s Job Responsibilities:
Prepare purchase orders and send copies to suppliers and to departments originating requests.
Determine if inventory quantities are sufficient for needs, ordering more materials when necessary.
Respond to customer and supplier inquiries about order status, changes, or cancellations.
Perform buying duties when necessary. Contact suppliers in order to schedule or expedite deliveries and to resolve shortages, missed or late deliveries, and other problems.
Review requisition orders in order to verify accuracy, terminology, and specifications.
Prepare, maintain, and review purchasing files, reports and price lists.
Compare prices, specifications, and delivery dates in order to determine the best bid among potential suppliers.
Track the status of requisitions, contracts, and orders.
Calculate costs of orders, and charge or forward invoices to appropriate accounts.
Check shipments when they arrive to ensure that orders have been filled correctly and that goods meet specifications.
Compare suppliers’ bills with bids and purchase orders in order to verify accuracy.
Approve bills for payment.
Locate suppliers, using sources such as catalogs and the internet, and interview them to gather information about products to be ordered.
Maintain knowledge of all organizational and governmental rules affecting purchases, and provide information about these rules to organization staff members and to vendors.
Monitor in-house inventory movement and complete inventory transfer forms for bookkeeping purposes.
Monitor contractor performance, recommending contract modifications when necessary.
Prepare invitation-of-bid forms, and mail forms to supplier firms or distribute forms for public posting.
A Renewed Interest in Strategic Procurement Consulting Services
Here’s something surprising I’m finding in my 2009 inquiries – a renewed interest in procurement strategy consulting services. It comes as a bit of surprise to me because of the tight economic conditions. Expensive consultants are among the first things that businesses slash from their budget, right?
What is driving this round of interest appears to the later adopters of technology – those companies that have yet to invest in e-sourcing, e-procurement, category management or spend analysis – either because they are very conservative and just haven’t taken the leap, or because they are smaller organizations and haven’t been sure what applies to them.
Read More here
Supply Chain: Three Answers
Three Answers Every Supply Chain Executive Should Give Themselves This Year
A recent post over on the Harvard Business Review Blogs pointed out Three Questions Executives Should Ask for the New Year
based upon eight characteristics of top performers and four characteristics of under-achievers identified by Melissa Raffoni of Raffoni Ceo Consulting and author of Managing Time in the HBR Pocket Mentor Series.
According to Raffoni, who identified the following eight characteristics of top performers:
they set clear measurable goals
they seek feedback
they communicate thoughtfully
they act thoughtfully
they are decisive
they have integrity
they have ego-less confidence
they study to make themselves smarter
and the following four characteristics of underachievers:
they don’t set goals with leverage in mind
they don’t get enough out of the people around them
they don’t listen well
they lack the energy and boldness to try new things
Executives should ask themselves the following three questions before setting their goals for 2010:
If there was only one thing I could do to improve my business, what would it be and how would I make it happen?
If there was only one thing I could focus on to improve my personal performance, what would that be and how would I make it happen?
What messages am I not listening to or refusing to confront in my business and personal performance and how am I going to overcome that this year?
I agree. But even more importantly, I think supply chain executives (CPOs, CSCOs, etc.) should start with these three answers:
I’m going to improve my organization’s technology platform.
Supply management is too complex, and the opportunity costs associated with continuing to use antiquated spreadsheet technology (which never fit in the first place), are too great not to have the right tools. I’m going to get the right platform for the job, make my people more productive, and watch the savings go Straight to the Bottom Line as efficiency soars and my people are able to strategically source more categories than they were able to in the past.
I’m going to get training.
I’m going to learn what I’m missing, fill the holes in my vision, understand what my team needs to be the best they can be, and then get them the right training.
I’m going to say “uncertainty be damned”.
“I’m not one of the lemmings”. “If my brethren want to jump off the cliff into the ocean, that’s their choice”. “I’m going to forge ahead and be successful, economy be damned”. “I’ll make the tough choices”. “And I’ll win”.
What is Procurement?
It’s been a constant theme that the editorial team at Procurement Leaders keeps hearing about – how procurement can sell itself better; not only to the wider business, but to the wider business world, to university students, to business schools and so on.
While much has been said of procurement being the opposite side of the [...]