Daily Archives: September 17, 2006

The Sourcing Innovation Series XIII: Part One Wrap Up

First of all, I’d like to thank all the contributors for their efforts and incredibly well thought contributions. It was a great series.

With commentaries ranging from technology through processes to services, from technological, business and even economic backgrounds, I think this first series brought a breadth and depth to the topic that even think-tanks would be hard pressed to match. Ranging from the down-to-earth predictions that the future will be forged from process improvements and enhanced corporate understanding of how to use existing technology (David) through evolutionary process improvements such as new hybrid sourcing models (Tim) to sky-high predictions that in the future capacities will be securitized and traded on the open market (Jason), this series opened our minds not only to the art of the possible, but the art of the probable. Given whom many of these predictions are coming from, I’d say it’s a safe bet that many of today’s predictions will turn into tomorrow’s technologies, processes, and best practices. So if you missed any posts, use the links above to catch up. And if you didn’t, use the links above to read them again. Considering what these guys can charge for their advice, and the very high caliber of the postings, I’d wring every idea I can get out of them. It might just give you the leg-up you need to surpass your competition.

I’m not going to attempt to summarize the series in this post, since I spent nine posts trying to do just that as I offered my views, but instead note that I hope to make this a regular yearly series. Sourcing is always changing, and not just because of the rapid advancements in technology which have skyrocketed it, eProcurement, eCommerce, and supply chain forward in recent years. I think it will be very interesting to see not only where it is in a year, but how that changes our perceptions of where it is going and how fast it will get there. I hope my fellow bloggers and contributors agree, since they’ll all be receiving invitations, root* willing, next summer to contribute to Partie Deux!.

Back to the present. Given the recent focus on talent#, I would like to propose that as the second cross-blog topic. I know Charles, Tim, and David are quite interested in this topic, as well as myself, (as they blog about it regularly). I’m particularly interested in predictions on how companies are going to close the talent gap over the next twelve months – and, in particular, innovative techniques they are going to use to do it. What do you say guys – up for it? (Guest commentators – if you want your top-notch commentary on SourcingInnovation on this topic, feel free to email thedoctor <AT> sourcinginnovation <DOT> com.)

Thanks again guys! Fantastic job!

* Inside Techie Joke
! It just sounds better en francais.
# See the Talent category in the category archives, sixth component down on the right hand side of the page.