(2/20/2012) BMP's Event Picks of the Week: Hackett Group, MyPurchasingCenter, Proactis
You can view all upcoming events on our site in a weekly listing or on an ongoing basis in our monthly calendar.
We visit over forty sources to come up with the listing so you can check one central place to see who is hosting webinars, conferences, and more. We don’t help run the events or have any affiliation with the hosts. We see this as a valuable service we can offer to you. One other helpful thing to mention is that if you come to our calendar and click on an event that you are interested in attending, we’ve posted all of the registration links so you can sign up for the event directly from our site.
If you'd prefer to LISTEN to an update, we also do a weekly Blog Talk Radio update on Jon Hansen's PI Window on Business program. Click here to listen to the latest episode. Please note that each Monday the update plays at 10pm EST. We will update the page with the newest episode is available.
This week's recommended events: February 20 - 24
There are three events this week that I’d like to call to your attention:
The first is being hosted by The Hackett Group, “CPO Agenda: Procurement's Top Issues In 2012”. This event is being held twice: first on Wednesday for North America and again on Thursday for Europe. During the webcast they will preview results from their 2012 Procurement Key Issues Study and give highlights on the main issues expected to drive procurement agendas this year including dealing with a volatile economy and the adoption of global operating models. The results of Hackett Group studies are often cited in supply management blogs and events, so an opportunity to hear from them directly is easy to recommend.
The next event is being held on Wednesday, “Innovating With Suppliers To Cut Costs, Support Growth, And Navigate An Uncertain Economy” by MyPurchasingCenter. Collaboration with suppliers is something we are all trying to wrap our minds around, and what makes this coverage of the trend interesting is that the featured speaker on the event is from Vantage Partners, a Boston-based management consulting firm specializing in negotiation skills development. If you were looking for a sign that the old-way of negotiating was coming to an end, you can consider this the message you’ve been waiting for.
The final event we will recommend is on Tail-Spend Management or “How To Squeeze Savings From The Most Fragmented 20% Of Spend” presented by Proactis on Thursday. If you take anything away from tail spend management it should be to question how and why you apply the Pareto Principle in your spend management activities. It is one thing to use the 80/20 rule when you are preparing a report, or putting together a table or chart for a presentation - because sometimes listing all of the suppliers is just too many lines to be readable. But using the principle as a supply base management strategy is too risky these days. What if one of those "trivial many" doesn't come through with a delivery or meet a service level? Are they still trivial? We suggest attending this event to better understand the risks you may be exposed to as well as approaches to improve your spend management percentages.
PI Window Update Guest Clip: Excerpt from TradingPartners' Recent Webinar on Seven Trends that Will Affect Supply Management in 2012
This event featured Andrew Bartolini from Ardent Partners and was covered on Buyers Meeting Point on February 9th. Beyond the high quality of the presentation itself, I appreciated the global perspective on procurement's activities and opportunities for responsibility and value creation. This was the kind of event that I think would open a lot of C-level eyes to the value of the function that they already have in house. Listen to our February 20th Blog Talk Radio update for more.
The BMP schedule for the rest of the week:
Flip Side Tuesday: 'The New Consultative Salesperson', a post by S. Anthony Iannarino on The Sales Blog.
Thursday: TBA
Friday: Our notes on one of the above event picks
Saturday: Our blog pick of the week
