Thursday, May 13, 2010 by
Just as housing’s “sellers” market changed into a “buyers” market, be prepared for suppliers to behave differently in the remainder of 2010. While 2009 was a “buyers” market for procurement departments thanks to suppliers’ bulging inventory and highly discounted prices, you should prepare yourself...
Clear strategic plans are the backbone of successful companies. They take a lot of time, effort, and countless hours of arguments and eventual agreements in order to focus the company’s resources. A strategy is simply a decision-making tool to allocate resources. If resources were unlimited, we...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 by
Would you pay three times as much for an oil change or transmission job on purpose? Of course not. But that may be exactly what you are doing by adhering to an old business decision.
Here’s an example. One company ran what they thought to be a very tight ship. They had a few regional...
Sunday, March 28, 2010 by
Anyone who has looked at their merchant card account statement has been confronted with a bewildering array of charges. There are various service charges and hundreds of different interchange fees . The fees pay for the cost of the transactions, the risks involved with card purchases, and the...
The aircraft industry during the 1930's was the pioneer of the concept of cost learning. The Boeing Corporation first noted that the cost of building each successive airplane followed a predictable pattern of cost reduction. They were able to demonstrate that with each doubling of production...
Most of us use the average calculation (also referred to as “mean”) quite a bit in our lives.
In business it helps us distill a complex set of varying numbers to something that can be easily monitored. I see CEOs and CFOs using averages extensively as KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to monitor...
Payment terms are very important in the business world, especially in today’s environment when cash is tight. Typically we think that extending payment terms is in our best interest, allowing us to hang on to our money just a little longer. This may be beneficial in the short-term, but can be...
1) When you don’t have time. With the overall economic slowdown, most firms are operating with fewer people. Fewer people means existing key staff must remain focused on core costs, regulatory and banking compliance, and investor relations with few staff hours left for examining non-core costs....
Organizations with many or large facilities will typically require services from contractors of electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and many other skilled trades. Services for maintenance, preventative maintenance and repairs are typically provided on a time-and-material basis. The amount paid by...
Thursday, March 4, 2010 by
Accepting credit cards for payment is a convenience that merchants offer to their customers. Offering this convenience comes at a cost and with a processing service agreement that is not easily understood. Card processors are numerous and offer different kinds of promotions, touting things like...
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