Last week I kicked off the second Sourcing Innovation series with a prologue on spot market trading and how one of last year’s predictions on the future of sourcing might soon be coming to pass. A little over a year ago, Sourcing Innovation launched the first Sourcing Innovation series on The Future of Sourcing, which was also the first cross-blog series in the sourcing and procurement world. The goal was to bring the bloggers and visionaries, who are out in the trenches, together to collectively define what’s ahead and provide you – tomorrow’s leaders – the insight you’ll need to succeed in the sourcing and procurement world of tomorrow.

Although only eleven bloggers participated in that inaugural event, I consider it to be a smashing success – especially in a space where only a handful of regular-posting blogs exist. After that, sourcing innovation launched two more cross-blog series – Sourcing 2007 and The Top Three – and the last cross blog series had twenty different bloggers and visionaries participating. To date, roughly thirty different bloggers and guest authors have participated in the cross-blog series and I’m hoping that this one trumps them all. (I’ve sent out more than seventy invitations to bloggers and guest bloggers alike from across the supply chain space – including vendors, analysts, and consultants – in the hopes that the collective viewpoint put forth this year outdoes any report that you could buy from any research firm in terms of the scope of vision provided.)

This cross-blog series will run for the next two-and-a-half weeks and, as with the previous series, Sourcing Innovation will cross-reference every post and guest post that hits the blog-sphere to provide you with a single reference point to begin your exploration into what is likely to come.

Last year we found out that decision and analytics guided sourcing and hybrid sourcing strategies were on the horizon, relationships will take center stage, the focus will shift to demand management and cost avoidance, on-demand is coming big-time, and securitizing materials and capacity will be a common occurrence. I wonder what we’re going to learn this year?

P.S. If you have not received an invitation, and would like to participate, please drop me a line at thedoctor<at>sourcinginnovation<dot>com.