For the 21st Century Supply Management Skill Sets Require

Dr. Tom DePaoli “Hands-on” Training When an individual learns by doing over 90% of what was learned is retained. The acquiring of skills via “hands on” training will be key for the supply manager in the 21st century. The supply manager must literally immerse themselves in their business and in establishing relationships with broad areas of […]

Focus on the Short Term Only

  95. Focus on the Short Term Only Make sure to only focus on the short term and the convenient or easy decisions. Never even have a long-term plan or goals. Characterize such plans as a waste of time and irrelevant. Story I had a client who focuses constantly on putting out short term fires. […]

Five-Year Strategic Plan Guide for Purchasing and Supply Management

By Dr. Tom DePaoli Over 95% of purchasing or supply management organizations do not have a long-term strategic plan. This is not surprising given the dynamic and hectic pace of purchasing organizations. Many of the plans that are completed are done once, and put in a three ring binder or a hard drive to never […]

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Information-Based Negotiations in The Digital Age By Dr. Tom DePaoli A few years ago, I introduced the information-based negotiation concept.  I defined it as a radically different approach to negotiations. It emphasizes deep knowledge of the supplier and their industry. It is different from some traditional approaches to negotiations. It is not the adversarial negotiation […]

Employee Selection Kaizen

When I ran a Human Resources department I was alarmed by the high turnover rate of new employees during the first year of employment. This was not only costly but caused more work in the department. We decided to from a team to look at the current process of employee selection. We had good data […]

Employee Orientation Shortened Via the Kaizen Way

After completing my new employee orientation at a new company that hired me, I was astounded by the redundancy and the lack of coordination of the process. Essentially employees were given a checklist and told to get signatures or initials on a laundry list of orientation items. No time limit or deadline was provided. Employees […]

Effective Cost Reduction–A Desktop Guide

Dr. Tom DePaoli Cooperative cost reduction efforts with suppliers demand a great deal of discipline and common sense. Never underestimate the amount of time and energy involved in significant cost reduction efforts. Pareto’s 80/20 rule is your starting point. Concentrate on your top 10 suppliers which for most companies are responsible for 40-80% of all […]

Do Not Make It Safe to Fail

74. Do Not Make It Safe to Fail Make it hell on earth for any employee who fails in even the slightest manner. Put them on a corrective plan and never let them forget about the failure. Make sure your entire team knows about the failure. Story We had an employee volunteer to run a […]

Digitizing Customer Data

A large commercial firm realized that its information on specific customers was scattered in different departments and different areas. The CEO insisted that all customer data was to be digitized and a major project began. The team was led by a team leader who was familiar with the Kaizen process and tools. The leader was […]