Archaeology Cats take lots of naps and would prefer that you not include them in the artifact catalog.
Sometimes they just like to dream what it was like when their great-grandfathers unearthed ancient sites, such as the unearthing of the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, that occurred 37 years ago today.
It’s no secret. the doctor doesn’t like PR pros. To be specific, the doctor does not like “professional” PR pros who work for PR Agencies who believe that all they need to know to do their jobs is “best practice” PR techniques and that subject matter knowledge is not required. This really bugs me because even the best salesman knows that you have to have both some understanding of the product and a customer’s desire if you want to sell it. Thus, in order for a PR “pro” to sell a story to publisher, would it not stand to reason that she should, at a minimum, understand the product or service she is pushing as well as the interests of the publishers she is pursuing?
Apparently not. Apparently SI wants to write about website building using glorified Facebook profiles, physical therapy, the average ball player’s salary, lipstick, reality TV, and PR agency press releases! Anyone who took fifteen seconds of time to look up SI (and scan any post in the Blogger Relations series or any entry in the FAQ) would realize that the doctor disdains social media for the sake of social media (if you want to take selfies and poke, prod, and farmville your life away, go for it, but leave me out of it), only writes about supply chain, and has a general disdain for PR agencies so the last thing the doctor wants is to write about your recent press release on how you just released a new social media tool that is going to revolutionize the business world (not), how you just ran a campaign for client X that was revolutionary (and probably had no impact on actual sales), or how you just hired more more PR “pros” to increase the number of publishers you can spam with inane, irrelevant, bullsh!t on a daily basis.
And to make matters worse, they all have outreach press release syndication engines that not only blast you with the most ludicrous story idea you can think of, but that send two to four follow-up e-mails on a scheduled basis where they remind you of how great the story idea was, in case you missed it the first time. If you’re lucky, it will include an unsubscribe link, but it won’t matter, because they set these engines up with a thousand lists, and every time they get a new e-mail address, immediately syndicate to all of the other engines in their PR network, so that way, even if you manage to unsubscribe from the Reality TV in Atlanta list, you’ll still get the same story from the Reality TV in New York list, that cross-runs all of their stories from the Reality TV in Atlanta list to make sure all stories get as wide a reach as possible. In other words, these PR pros have taken the art of spamming to a whole new level! (the doctor bets that even the Nigerians are impressed!)
But even this isn’t what’s currently driving the doctor mental. What’s currently driving the doctor crazy is how every ridiculous story (which is an accurate term because this is the word many people use to describe fiction, which is probably the most accurate term for a good portion of what SI gets pitched, which is another accurate term because this is what should be done with most of the content suggestions sent SI’s way) comes preceded by the words I think this is a great story for SI because …
PR Pro: What You Think Doesn’t Matter! Not in the least. No one gives a sh!t. All the company paying you cares about is that you promote their product or service. And all the publisher cares about is bringing quality subject matter on topic to their audience. SI isn’t being consulted by beauticians who want lipstick advice, isn’t being consulted by agents to professional athletes who want insights on how much their clients should be getting paid, and I certainly hope that SI isn’t being read by PR Pros who want insights on how to do their jobs even more annoyingly! (Although it’s possible that with this rant SI just gave a few amateurs a few ideas they shouldn’t have …)
And at least where SI is concerned, you have an archive of over 4,000 posts to search to determine whether or not SI has ever written about the topic, a detailed 20+ (or is it 30+) page FAQ that answers many of your questions, and a Blogger Relations series that, if read appropriately, makes it quite clear on how to NOT be an idiot. So if you can’t get the clue that all SI wants is Supply Management / Supply Chain related stories* and keep sending him stories about lipstick and baseball, expect him to unsubscribe to every list associated to your agency and blacklist you — permanently. (And this means that if you ever do get a great story in Supply Management, just like no one would listen to the boy who cried wolf, no one here is going to listen to you!)
So please shape the hell up and put a little intelligence and insight into your job or get lost. Seriously.
*SI is quite willing to be pitched loosely-related stories that have a 1 in 100 chance of being written about as long as there is some, clear, relation to Supply Management / Supply Chain.
Eighteen anti-trends from the bush country still remain. As much as we’d like this series to be nearing the end of its run so that LOLCat can come out of the bag and once again explore the world, this lunacy has to stop. We have to shine the light on all these half-truths and lies and put an end to them once and for all. We will continue until each one is laid bare in the hopes that the boondock futurists run back into the bush lands from once they sprang and leave us alone to push forward.
So why do so many historians keep pegging increased raw material scarcity as a future trend? Besides their inability to recognize the twenty first century, there are a few reasons, but among the top three are:
So what does this mean?
Fossil Fuel being burned like there’s no tomorrow might mean there is no tomorrow
Non-renewable energy reserves are running out, pollution is on the rise, and if you aren’t already being hit with rapidly increasing energy costs, expect to be taxed to the hilt by way of carbon credits. At some point, where fossil fuels is concerned, there will be no tomorrow. Thus, you have to start moving towards renewable energy resources — wind, solar, water — as soon as possible and make sure that you are only using fossil fuels for transport, at least until such time as there are suitable hybrid bio-fuel/battery-powered transport options for you to choose from.
Rare Earth Minerals are on the verge of extinction
They are called rare earth minerals for a reason — they are few and far between compared to regular earth minerals and in a very limited supply. You need to find alternate designs that, at the very least, require less of these materials if you can’t eliminate the need for them completely. And you definitely need to start designing for recycle and reclamation.
Food Reserves at an all time low
Food costs are going to increase through the roof, and severely impact your bottom line, unless you do whatever you can to eliminate waste through the supply chain end-to-end. In many countries, a third of food is needlessly wasted. Not only can we do much better than this, but we need to. Even though there are now almost 7.3 Billion people in the world, we are still able to produce enough food to feed everyone, but yet over 870 Million people are chronically undernourished. Simple math says that if 2/3rds of global food production feeds about 6 Billion people, then we can easily feed 7.5 Billion people with sufficient nourishment. However, it also says that as the population grows, our ability to produce more than we need decreases substantially and any natural disaster that wipes out a major crop will have huge repercussions if we cannot eliminate waste. So you need to review all of your transportation, storage, and production processes to make sure you get total supply chain waste as low as possible as soon as possible.
Nineteen anti-trends from the hinterlands still remain. As much as we’d like this series to be nearing its end so that LOLCat can come out of hiding, this delirium has to stop. We have to shine the light on all these half-truths and lies and put an end to them once and for all. We will continue until each one is laid bare in the hopes that the outback futurists crawl back into the sand caves from once they sprang and leave us alone to push forward.
So why do so many historians keep pegging process convergence into supply management as a future trend? Besides their inability to remove the blinders, there are a few reasons, but among the top three are:
But, as we all know, it’s not that way anymore! So what does this mean for you?
Supply Management is the New Heart of the Organization
and needs to be structured and positioned as such.
All of the functions of the company are, to different degrees, becoming dependent on Supply Management. Supply Management must now be a leader in collaboration, supplier relationship management, and transition management, among other modern processes and technologies, that will be discussed in an upcoming series.
Back-Office and Front-Office are Converging
Its not just AP (Accounts Payable) merging with AR (Accounts Receivables) or Sales merging with Marketing, its the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) processes merging and Sales, Finance, and Supply Management getting an end-to-end view.
Transition Management to a new operational paradigm is required
And processes like ADKAR, as we discussed in our recent post #25 on More Stakeholder Collaboration, are going to be required. More on this in an upcoming series as well.
Twenty anti-trends still remain. As much as we’d like this series to end so that LOLCat can come out of hiding, this insanity has to stop. We have to shine the light on all these half-truths and lies and put an end to them once and for all. We will continue until each one is laid bare in the hopes that the backwater futurists crawl back into the muck from once they sprang and leave us alone to push forward.
So why do so many historians keep pegging e-Procurement System Adoption as a future trend? Besides brain cell inactivity, there are a few reasons, but among the top three are:
e-Procurement is Still “New”
Fifteen (15) years might be new in business terms, but given the rate of change we are all accustomed with as a result of the internet age, it’s not new at all. In fact, it’s ancient! With this metric, you’re still calling on analog cell phones while the rest of the world is on digital smart phones that can call, text, and video conference. Get the picture? (Oh, wait, you don’t have picture capability. Sorry!)
Catalogs or Punch-Outs are the Norm
Catalogs are good, punch-outs are better, but as SI explained in its B2B 3.0 Series way back in 2008, virtual, integrated marketplaces, which were available then, are better still! Read the classic series for more info:
Usage is Limited
This is usually because poor processes and policies limited rollout to “key” individuals, but often because people didn’t want to use ugly, clumsy systems that didn’t even accomplish their basic function. The answer is a modern e-Procurement system that is easy to roll-out organization wide, easier to use, and does what it is supposed to do. There might have been only two options 15 years ago. But now you probably have a dozen that would work. So get one!