Monthly Archives: February 2010

Purchasing 0.3

Is Purchasing Magazine trying to give me a heart attack? Isn’t it enough that they refuse to acknowledge the presence of Sourcing Innovation (which, as you know, is one of the few blogs that brings you real supply management content you can use day-in, day-out six days a week, every week) which they dropped from their “News from the Web” feed years ago (when I first ripped apart one of their sloppy articles)? After reading a few of their recent articles, my blood is boiling!

That’s right! That bullcr@p that Spend Analysis is expensive (see last Thursday’s post) is just the tip of the iceberg. And even though many of the quoted individuals had good advice to share, in the end, Purchasing’s recent article on Purchasing 3.0 is just as bad and filled with absurdities … which start on the first line! (If Purchasing had their way, we’d regress to Purchasing 0.3!)

Have you used Social Networking to build supplier relationships?
  I Hope Not! Since all Facebook is good for is Facebook parties that result in Million dollar homes being trashed …
If you want to build drinking buddies relationships, yes, Facebook will work great … but what you want is productive and professional relationships where you can work together to make each of your businesses better.

Are you sure you’re using Excel effectively?
  You can’t use Excel to manage your supply chain! How many fracking times do I have to say it? Spreadsheets are bad strategy, prevent innovation, and cost you billions! You’re better off using an etch-a-sketch like the dork in It’s All About the Pentiums (2:54 mark). (And just because it’s still all about the pentiums, baby, that doesn’t mean it should be!)

Do you, uh, Tweet?
Are you kidding me? Hasn’t Twitter Turned Too Many Into Twits already? It appears that Twitter has already made twits out of at least 3 in 10 students! The only things that should go “tweet” are Tweety Bird bird and Rockin’ Robin (Muppet Version).

With the prevalence of ERP systems in large companies, more purchasing professionals … should be focusing on developing advanced database skills.
Uhhm, no. Purchasing professionals should be focussed on learning advanced data analysis skills. This is not quite the same as learning advanced database skills. Purchasing managers don’t need to know how to configure, manage, scale, back-up, restore, and replicate databases … that’s what DBAs are for. Purchasing managers know how to use today’s spend analysis tools, which require them to learn how to build and manipulate cubes through dimension-driven UIs, not how to optimize 4 level nested SQL statements … that’s what the tools do! (And frankly, even your average CS graduate would have a hard time optimizing 4-level nested SQL statements across multiple tables, if they could even write them in the first place!)

The article also promotes the new Microsoft Online Services
which will only work if everyone on the team is using a supported version of Windows. And even then, it might not work. (Furthermore, even though they claim that LiveMeeting works on Safari and Firefox on Mac, even if your system meets all the requirements listed, it often doesn’t.) Mac is around 15% of the market and growing, Linux is on the rise (especially in Netbooks), and a number of organizations still use AIX and UNIX based platforms (which could become popular again if thin-client desktops [e.g. SunRays] take off). Not everyone is in the Microsoft eco-system anymore. (And the majority of supply management systems are NOT built on .NET.)

And then the last paragraph indicates that mobile devices are the answer to requisition approval (to keep projects moving), commodity price updates, and procurement communication!
This is probably the most dangerous message of all, because now we’re in Yes, … but territory. Not all requisitions can be approved on a 3×5 screen. What if there are 20 (or more) line items? What if your system flagged 5 as off-contract? What if it’s an unusual request for a significant amount? You’re going to need more data to make the right decision than you’re ever going to fit on that itsy bitsy teeny weeny tiny Blackberry Storm or Curve. It’s one thing to approve a new laptop or mobile phone for an employee that needs it right away to continue working, but another to approve an order of 10,000 units of SKU XYZ123, when the contract is for ZYX321! Why is the order off contract? Oversight? Have requirements changed? Or is your supplier out of ZYX321 and you need an acceptable substitution right away? And what good is a commodity price update if you can’t see the history and the trend graphs. Unless you’ve already done the analysis and figured out that you should buy when it hits 75 or sell if it hits 100, because you’re hedging risk on the commodities markets, that update is useless. And communicating in 140 byte tweets? That would just make you a Twit!

Let me finish by saying that I’m so glad that you, dear reader, are an educated, informed, and intelligent individual who would drop this blog from your feeds faster than a hot potato if I ever published anything as ridiculous as what Purchasing and other publications are getting away with these days!

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Is it Time to Certify?

Let’s be honest. Many certifications in many professions are nothing but bunk and not worth the paper they’re printed on. They exist for the sole purpose of helping the organization or private enterprise that offers them a quick buck for little or no effort. (This is especially true in the technology profession where many of the technologies you can get certified in are bunk to begin with.)

But some of the certifications, especially those offered by reputable organizations or enterprises, are not that bad … and some of them can considerably fatten your pay check. Consider recent findings from both Next Level Purchasing (NLP) and Purchasing Magazine that found that those who possess the SPSM (from NLP) or the CPSM (from the ISM) can earn up to 14% more annually than their peers. In addition, if you’re out of work, it might even considerably shorten your job search. As noted in this recent Certification Update article on Supply & Demand Chain Executive, a recent random sampling of over 100 purchasing manager jobs posted on Monster.com revealed that 20% of those jobs listed certification as a mandatory or desirable qualification. When you consider that only about 10% of professionals in the workforce possess a certification, which also includes the expired APP, CPP, and CPM in addition to the CSCP, SCMP, PPP, SPC, and a few others, a certification does help you stand out from the crowd.

And when you consider that some certifications, like the SPSM can be obtained for as little as $1149, and, if you’re out of work, completed in a few weeks, maybe it’s time to bite the bullet. After all, if it gets you a job faster, and helps you earn as much as 12K more than you might have otherwise, you might as well bite the bullet and get it.

(To be brutally honest, if you aren’t able to earn the basic SPSM, you probably shouldn’t be in Supply Management anyway. It’s not that hard. And if you really want to excel at your job, even the SPSM2 isn’t enough. You’ll need custom courses from industry leaders like Greybeard Advisors or the MPower Group.)

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The Best Supply Chains are Flexible in Design and in the Office

A recent article over on Discovery News that headlined that Employees With Flex Time Put In More Hours is a must-read. Consider the headline findings:

  • working the usual nine to five may not be the ideal schedule for employees or employers
  • workers with flexible hours are not only more satisfied with their jobs, they also work more intensely
  • the findings also apply to remote workers and employees with reduced office hours

Basically, as those of us who work flex, or who have worked in flex environments know, it’s a boon to your business if you’re in a knowledge industry. And it has nothing to do with the quoted theory that the “intensified work effort given to employers is reciprocity for the relaxed schedule”. It has to do with the fact that not everything about life can be scheduled and, as a result, some days, nine-to-five will not be the best time for your employee to work.

Consider the following:

  • your employee gets a 24-hour virus at 1:00 pm on Wednesday
  • your employee’s toddler is ill and his partner is not available until noon on Thursday
  • an accident Thursday morning shuts down the main highway between your employee’s house and your office and triples commute time

If your employee comes into work Thursday morning, how productive is your employee going to be if he comes in

  • sick,
  • worried, or
  • stressed out from road rage

vs. waiting until Thursday afternoon when he’s well, not worried, and not stressed?

If you’ve hired the right employee, who likes his job and believes in the company as much as the company should believe in him, he wants to do a good job and will happily put in the time it needs to get the job done right, even if it means going (significantly) beyond 40 hours once in a while if it doesn’t (significantly) interfere with his life. Instead of 9-5 on Thursday, he’d probably happily do 1-10, or a few spare hours on the weekend. And if he can do it at home, and not have to waste an hour or two on an office commute, he’ll find it easy to find those hours. Most of what we do is not grunt work, it’s brain work, and that work gets done best when we are at are best and not distracted, plain and simple. And when your employees are allowed to control at least some of their schedules, you’ll find that they’ll organize said schedules so that you get their peak productivity times. So loosen up. You’ll be a better organization for it.

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If Social Networking Sites Were College Students

Check out this great post over on Aaron Hoos blog on if social networking sites were college students. In a word, it’s awesome.

  • Classmates.com: the self-absorbed senior who’s been attending college for 8 years to get a 4 year degree
  • MySpace: once the most popular student in school … put on some weight and sold out to “the man”
  • Facebook: the great looking guy that has it all … his popularity on the rise … but in ten years … he’ll feel empty inside
  • Orkut: doesn’t speak English … and he’s not good enough to play the exotic angle to get dates
  • Bebo: the off-campus student no one has heard of
  • LinkedIn: he’s mostly talk and optimistic dreams but he has to work twice as hard to get the same marks as everyone else
  • Xing: he’s a little awkward around the girls and he sometimes forgets to wear matching socks
  • Plaxo: he talks a big, big game but he didn’t make the football team and he’s not on the dean’s list

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Does That Report Deserve To Be Stuck Where the Sun Don’t Shine?

Then Oriental Co has the perfect solution for you! Appropriately named White Goat, this new office device can take regular letter-sized paper or shreds, including the last strategic plan from your boss that you cursed until you were blue in the face, and transform it into nearly pristine rolls of white toilet paper.

As seen in the video below, it’s quite simple to use. Plug it in, add paper and water, and about 30 minus later, remove the roll of toilet paper. While the hefty price tag of about 100K means it would take years to recoup the cost, as this CNet Review points out, what price is too high for the pleasure of wiping your butt with your boss’ memos?

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