Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Employers Getting Tough On Social Networks … About Time!

While I have no problem with business networks like Linked-In and Plaxo, and web 2.0 tools like Slideshare and Trip-It, and see the great value they have to offer, I still have a great disdain for social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter (and that’s why I’m faceless, spaceless, and twitter free) which have yet to bring useful applications to the table.

Even though you can argue that these networks do have some useful features, as Facebook allows you to create groups, MySpace allows you to share video (like YouTube and its YouTube channels), and Twitter allows you to post (tiny) urls to job openings and useful articles, the fact of the matter is that these sites are just filled with too much junk and too many distractions to truly allow you to be productive (unless you have the wavering focus of a hungry Indian cobra). I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be poked, prodded, bitten, shaken, and stirred when I’m trying to learn about cost reduction best practices; I don’t want to be pinged, walled, or buzzed when trying to watch an interview with a logistics expert; and I certainly don’t want to hear about someone’s latest foray to the restroom when trying to find a link to an article on procurement performance. Thus, I was thrilled to see this recent Industry Week Analysis that 76% of companies are now choosing to block social networking sites because while business networking sites, when properly used, can be good for business … having you constantly distracted at work isn’t good for anyone. Maybe that makes me an old fogey who should just go fuddle-duddle, but as you know, sometimes I just don’t care.

Finding the doctor This Fall

As you all know the doctor, who, unlike most (former) academics, doesn’t like to hear himself talk (which explains his predilection towards blogging), can be an elusive character to find (especially since he can only be found on the business networks). Nonetheless, he does emerge from the blogging burrow every once and a while and make a public appearance.

Right now, he is scheduled to be at the Mpower Group‘s Best Practices Xchange (BPX) Gaining a Voice in the Boardroom Executive Roundtable on October 23, 2009 in Oak Brook (Chicago), Illinois. Speakers at this event will include Mpower’s CEO Dalip Raheja who will present recent research on identifying the main roadblocks that prevent sourcing and supply chain groups from achieving world class performance and Professor Lloyd Rinehart of the University of Tennessee on creating cross-functional reality-based relationships to elevate the roles of sourcing/procurement. The event will also present case studies from a major Fortune 500 manufacturing company and a major Fortune 500 services company (that happens to be one of the largest utilities in the US and) that overcame the challenges of elevating their organizations from cost centres to strategic internal partners as well as a breakout session on success metrics.

If you are a director-level or above executive who is interested in attending this event, please contact Nicolas Hummer (nicoh <at> thempowergroup <dot> com or 630 268 8963) for more information on this invitation-only event. (They’ve promised me that they won’t be stingy with invitations, but space is limited.)

He’s also planning to attend the 7th Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management on Managing Global Supply Chain Networks in Uncertain Times in Toronto, Ontario on October 29 and 30, 2009. The full program for this event can be found on the web-site and this year it will cover country specific studies, management in turbulence, supply chain optimization, supply chain performance, technology, process management, and transformation. Keynotes will be given by Craig McLaughlin, the Vice President of NA Logistics at Cadbury, who will be giving a talk entitled “Leading in Uncertain Times” and Joseph Cavinato, the ISM Professor of Supply Chain Management, who will be giving a talk entitled “Procurement/Supply: The Most Opportune Time Ever”.

Takin’ Care of Business (The SI FAQ)

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock’s warning
Take the 8:15 into the city

There’s a whistle up above
And people pushin’, people shovin’
And the girls who try to look pretty

And if your train’s on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay

If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I’m self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day

And I’ll be …
Taking care of business, every day
Taking care of business, every way
I’ll be taking care of business, it’s all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

If it were as easy as fishin’
You could be a musician
If you could make sounds loud or mellow

Get a second-hand guitar
Chances are you’ll go far
If you get in with the right bunch of fellows

People see you having fun
Just a-lying in the sun
Tell them that you like it this way

It’s the work that we avoid
And we’re all self-employed\
We love to work at nothing all day

And we’ll be …
Taking care of business, every day
Taking care of business, every way
We’ll be taking care of business, it’s all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime

Work out!

Take good care of my business

When I’m away, every day, whoo!

Takin’ Care of Business
by Randy Bachman, Bachman-Turner Overdrive

As the blog continues to grow in readership and popularity, the pace of requests increase. As such, I thought it would be a good time to put together a FAQ which covers, among other things, SI’s product and service review policies, publishing guidelines, book review requirements, and event attendance, coverage, speaking and promotion policies.

Here are the questions that I have answered. If you have any additional questions you’d like answered, send them along and I will consider adding them to future revisions of the FAQ (which will always be accessible off of the sidebar).

  • Will you review my product?
  • Will you review my service?
  • Will you review my portal, web service, social network, or community?
  • Will you review my online offering if I sponsor the review?
  • Will you cover my story?
  • Will you post my press release on your blog?
  • Will you publish my article?
  • Will you promote my event?
  • What about a media partnership?
  • Will you review my book?
  • Will you attend and cover my event?
  • Will you speak at my conference, roundtable, seminar, or event?
  • Will you exchange links with my site?
  • Will you do a sponsored post on a particular topic?
  • Will you accept sponsored links in your posts or on the sidebar?
  • Will you write an article for me?
  • How can you help me?
  • Are you on X? Can I connect with you?
  • Can I subscribe to your blog?
  • I’m new to sourcing/procurement/supply chain and I noticed you have collected a great deal of solid information and resources. Where should I start?

Six Keiths for Vinnie!

Vinnie Mirchandani’s Technology and My Hobby series now has enough enough entries to enumerate the uniform polyhedron (as long as edges are not allowed to coincide). That’s quite an achievement. As it has now achieved the highest Keith number status under 100, I suggest we raise six Keiths to Vinnie on Keith’s upcoming 214th birthday on October 5th. (Keith’s brewery has been in operation since 1820, opening a mere 34 years after the opening of the Molson brewery in 1786, which makes it not only one of Canada’s oldest breweries, but one of the world’s oldest breweries.)

Here is an updated index of the posts in alphabetical order by category for you hobbyists.

Category Author Company
Archaeology (Armchair)

More Essays

 Michael Lamoureux (of Sourcing Innovation)
Asian Fusion Cooking Sameer Patel (of Span Strategies)
Baseball (Little League) Mike O’Brien (of Appirio)
Basketball Coaching Dan Dal Degan (of Salesforce)
BBQ Floyd Teter (of Jet Propulsion Labs)
Beagles Peanuts
Blood Donation Tom Foydel (of SightLines)
Brewmastering (Home) Dennis Howlett (of ZDNet)
Bridge David Dobrin (of B2B Analysts)
Cars (Tinkering) Brian Sommer (of TechVentive)
Cars (Restoration) Oliver Marks (of Oliver Marks & Associates)
Cartoons (Tech Toons) Alvaro “Blag” Tejada Galindo (of SAP)
Cats Rusty Weston (of Third Set Media)
Chess Rita Mirchandani
Community Service (Long Distance) Will Scott (of Waer Systems)
Cricket Thomas Otter (of Gartner)
Cruises Edgar Moore (of San Jacinto College)
Cycling Paul Wiest (of Siemens Enterprise Communications)
Disney World Jim Holincheck (of Gartner)
Fishing Mike Prosceno (of SAP)
Friends Naomi Bloom (of Bloom & Wallace)
Flying Ameed Taylor (of Applation)
Gardening Erik Keller (of Wapiti LLC)
Gastronomy William Mougayar (of Eqentia)
Golf Jim Rafferty (of Market Shapers)
Grandparenting Frank Scavo (of Computer Economics)
Green Living Timothy Chou (of Cloudbook.Net)
Harmonica Leonardo Kenji Shikida (of Vetta Labs LTDA)
Home Design Josh Snowhorn (of Terremark)
Home Improvement (Global) Helmuth Guembel (of Strategy Partners)
Home Movies Tom Wailgum (of CIO Magazine)
Horses (Hi-Tech) Dave Morrison (of Shop.com)
Horses (Low-Tech) Mark Galloway (of oppSource)
Jazz (Big Band) Joe Thornton (of Lawson Software)
Jazz Radio DJ Jim Berkowitz (of CRM Mastery)
Martial Arts Harald Reiter (of SSIP)
Model Planes Anil Wats (of DP World)
Music (as a Second Career) Richard Hunter (of Gartner)
Musical Discoveries Mike Laven (of Traiana)
Nutrigenomics (Functional Medicine) Jeff Ventura (of MiPro Consulting)
Opera Guenther Tolkmit (of Lawson Software)
Organ Playing Gerlinde Gniewosz (of Zuztertu.com)
Parenting David Axson (of Sonax Group)
Photography Michael Krigsman (of Asuret)
Rafting Richard Hirsch (of Siemens SIS)
Reading Francine McKenna (an Author)
Restoring Antiquarian Books Jason Busch (of Spend Matters)
Rifles (Target) Tom Ryan (of Gartner)
Rock (Guitar) Devan Sabaratnam (of Business on Software fame)
RVs Tom Chimera (of Overpayment Recovery Services)
Running Eric Dirst (of DeVry)
Sailing Curtis Beebe (of PwC)
Scrapbooking Debbie Brown (of ADP)
Side-Tripping Kimberly McDonald Baker (of Project Partners)
Photography Michael Krigsman (of Asuret)
Sailboat Racing Bill Kutik (of Human Resource Executive)
Singing (Soprano) Gretchen Lindquist (of SAP Security)
Skiing Sig Rinde (of Thigamy fame)
Snorkeling Louis Columbus (of Cincom)
Soccer Coaching Christian Schuh (of Siemens Enterprise Communications)
Squash Nick Dembla (of Capsilon)
Super Momming Joy Wald (of ADT)
Surfing Karen Watts (of Corefino)
Technology Impact Bob Warfield (of SmoothSpan)
Technology Luddism Josh Greenbaum (of Enterprise Application Consulting)
Tennis Karen Beaman (of Jeitosa)
Theatre Marilyn Pratt (of SAP Labs)
Travel (International) Harish Malani
Vinyl DJs Ray Wang (of Forrester)
Wine John Dean (of ex-Steelcase fame)
Woodworking Jeff Nolan (of Venture Chronicles (.com))
Working Out Larry Dignan (of ZDNet)
Writing Charlotte Otter (of Charlotte’s Web)
Writing (Adventure) Rein Krevald (an Author)
Youth Science Mentoring Charlie Bess (of EDS)

Will the Big Shift Waves Give You The Big Shaft?

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Honestly, I don’t know the answer to this. What I do know is that I agree with the Supply Chain Editorial Staff and that graphs based on loosely defined waves don’t tell you very much. But let me back up.

Recently, Deloite released “the 2009 Shift Index” which is a 142 page PDF where they attempt to define and measure the forces of long-term change and understand the deeper trends that might soon make the concept of “normal” in business a thing of the past. To this end, they defined three “waves” that they believe capture the shifts that are taking place in the global economy:

  • Foundation Wave
    changes in the business landscape, including digital technologies and the liberalization of government policies
  • Flow Wave
    the increasing pace in which knowledge, capital, and talent move across a company and around the globe
  • Impact Wave
    the business impact of the first two changes with respect to overall corporate financial performance

Then they created indices and measure the shifts. And this leaves me scratching my head. How do you prescribe meaning to a rate of change in an index with a definition that is nebulous to begin with?

That being said, some of the trends that Deloitte has been tracking, which were quantified in the report, are certainly worth noting. For example, the average Return on Assets (ROA) of US companies has decreased 75% in the last 45 years and digital technologies are being adopted at rates 2-5 times faster than previous infrastructure shifts such as the telephone and electricity. If they are relevant to your industry, the sooner you identify these trends and their potential impacts to your operations, the better off you will be. If you don’t plan for them early, you might soon find yourself among the companies that are experiencing a rapid deterioration in performance.

To that end, it’s certainly worth downloading a copy of the report and giving it a cursory read. It contains a lot of good information on a number of trends that could impact your supply chain, some of which are summarized in this recent Supply Chain Digest article on a new normal. Just don’t be afraid to shaft the shift indices with the short straw. I don’t think anyone really knows what the global business landscape will look like in 10 to 20 years, and I certainly don’t expect a magic index to shed any long-term insights.