Also, it’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. So stop by your local comic shop, get your free comic books, and while you’re there, pick up a copy of: Groo: The Hogs of Horder and maybe you’ll finally understand how the relentless blind pursuit of low cost country outsourcing always backfires in the end!
Sourcing Innovation is thrilled to welcome back Next Level Purchasing (NLP) as a lead sponsor. Next Level Purchasing, which has been offering on-line purchasing training since 2001, and purchasing / supply management certifications since 2004, is one of the few companies that shares SI’s passion for the continued education of Supply Management Professionals everywhere and that’s why it’s great to see NLP back on SI.
Plus, it’s SPSM (Senior Professional in Supply Management) certification is a groundbreaking offering in the Supply Management space. While the original SPSM certification, launched nine years ago, is fairly basic by today’s standards, it still defines the baseline skill set required by every Supply Management professional, a skill set that is not taught in most business programs and a skill set that didn’t even exist in the curriculums of the big Purchasing Associations, including the ISM, until five years ago (as the ISM did not launch it’s CPSM certification until 2008, four years after NLP introduced the SPSM)! Furthermore, since then, Next Level Purchasing, which recognizes that the Supply Management function has been in continuous change over the last two decades, has launched the SPSM2 and SPSM3 certifications (which are still unmatched in the big associations) which are designed to help a Supply Management Professional advance in her knowledge, skill sets, and career once she has mastered the basics. (And even though the SPSM3 was just launched, they are already in the early planning phases for the SPSM4 and when the need is there, they will be ready.)
Today is a great day to be welcoming back Next Level Purchasing as a lead sponsor. Today, Next Level Purchasing launches its 3rd annual salary survey. The survey, which is sponsored by Sourcing Innovation and which can be downloaded for free on Next Level Purchasing’s website, contains a lot of useful data on salaries by continent, education, years of experience, and certification for everyone in the purchasing profession. Some key findings include:
In other words, when SI told you to train thyself because it would be worth it, if you train thyself (and get certified), you’re adding, on average, another $1,000 a month to your salary! (Considering that the basic SPSM Certification is only $1,149, this is definitely worth your time!)
To download the Free Salary Survey, log into the Next Level Purchasing Association (NLPA) member’s area and download the report from the What’s New tab. (Membership is free for all Supply Management professionals, so sign up if you are not a member!)
Plus, this year Next Level Purchasing, always looking to add to their educational offerings, launches the first Next Level Purchasing Association Conference. Being held this September, this conference, which will feature keynotes by leading analysts (including Andrew Bartolini of Ardent Partners and CPO Rising and Chris Provines of Value Vantage Partners and ChrisProvines.com), will be centered around a number of workshops designed to increase your Supply Management skills. Instead of the same-old same-old conference where you sit around all day listening to the same people speak over and over, this conference will focus on teaching you, which should put it on your short list as not many conferences these days seem to have that objective.*
Welcome back Next Level Purchasing!
That’s why you don’t find the doctor at many conferences these days!
Russell T. Davies, who revived Doctor Who and gave Whovians everywhere a reason to rejoice and dream about the requirements for supply chains that span Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, turns 50 today.
I have to admit that I’m sick of all this hype about big data and how it is the answer to all our problems. As I’ve said again and again, there’s no such thing as big data in business. Relative to our ability to process it, data has always been big. And, in business, big has always been meaningless. Furthermore, in business, we’ve always been able to process as much data as we need to in reasonable amounts of time if we made good technology decisions.
And I’m even sicker of the fact that some people think we can replace science with math and processes with computer programs. We never could, and for the foreseeable future, where AI (artificial intelligence) will not be a reality, we can’t. Thinking like this is what causes economists to latch onto, and promote, financial policies that, seem good in theory but, in practice, result in economic collapse when taken to extremes.
The reality is that science can never be replaced by math and automated prediction. Not only is the author of this HBR blog post on “why data will never replace thinking” right when he says that it’s only by trying to come up with our stories (hypothesis) beforehand, then testing them, that we can reliably learn the lessons of our experiences — and our data, but it’s only by coming up with hypothesis, and putting plans into actions that we can beat the competition and gain market share in the global market. Look at the giants of industry today. Did Apple become the dominant first in the e-Music industry by letting Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, etc. develop their music players and music stores first, analyzing customer responses, and then introducing their offering? Or did they become the dominant force by using their brains to try and figure out what the market, and customers, were missing, using the best creative and engineering talent to design a solution, and then releasing that product on the market? It was the latter solution — the solution that required big brains that won the market. Similarly, Walmart became the biggest retailer not by asking consumers want they wanted, but by predicting what the average consumer really wanted — a one-stop department store that met most of their basic needs at low prices with a consistent product and service offering across each store for the mobile consumer.
This isn’t to say that data isn’t important, it is, just that it won’t solve all your problems and that, beyond a certain point, more data doesn’t help. Remember, statistically speaking, you only need 384 data points to have 95% confidence with a confidence interval of 5 on a population of 1,000,000. If you want a confidence interval of 3, you only need 1,066 data points, and if you want a confidence interval of 1, you only need 9,513. Beyond a certain point, more data doesn’t add much confidence and the only way you’re going to get more insight is to see it inside your head.
So keep your big data. I’ll use my brain instead. How about you?
While it’s not always easy to pick a winner, it’s sometimes easy to pick a loser. For example:
😉