Procurement can be your company's secret weapon for winning in turbulent times. In most companies, procurement is an unglamorous, unloved part of the business. A job in the procurement office? A fast track to nowhere. Sourcing and supplier management is strictly about costs, the thinking goes, and all that matters is playing hardball to get these as low as possible. No connection to innovation or strategy or creating positive value. Not so fast. As Boston Consulting Group thought leaders Christian Schuh, Wolfgang Schnellbacher, Alenka Triplat, and Daniel Weise explain in Profit from the Source, procurement should be regarded in a new light, because it has the potential to be a CEO's secret weapon in these fast-moving, disruptive times. The authors offer a wake-up call and a new strategic blueprint for leaders everywhere. With vivid stories and in-depth case studies, they illustrate that no other business function offers the same holistic view of a company-from suppliers who provide the organization with raw materials and components to consumers who buy the finished product. While it's true that a core task of any procurement function is to keep costs from spiraling out of control, the authors show how procurement can help businesses generate phenomenal value from five other sources of competitive advantage critical to success-innovation, quality, sustainability, speed, and risk reduction. Drawing on BCG research and the authors' firsthand experience working with some of the world's leading companies-in high tech, automotive, consumer goods, and many other industries-Profit from the Source provides proven strategies to drive new bottom-line, as well as top-line, growth for your company.

What do The Beatles, Apollo 13, the Roman military, a pack of wolves, and the very best companies in the world all have in common? Answer: Plasticity. They can change, adapt, and excel as the situation requires. In most organizations, strategy and functional excellence get the most attention. But even the best of either provides only limited long-term advantage. Highly effective organizations add Plasticity as a third dimension and rack up stellar breakthroughs-again and again. It is the key ingredient that allows strategy and functional excellence to deliver value. As the authors show in Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel, Plasticity also enables great organizations to break down barriers and collaborate in the pursuit of a common objective, and to reconfigure or rewire themselves to face down challenges or reach ever-stronger competitive positions. Through entertaining stories and astute analysis, this book demonstrates that Plasticity spurs sports teams to become champions, companies to book record earnings, and artists to attain worldwide fame. You can use its principles-adaptability, flexibility, fluid networks and roles, lofty goals, and innovation, among others-to achieve operational excellence, tear down silos, and create more vibrant, creative enterprises. Your organization can become not just highly profitable and fun to work for, but an organization that can change the world. Plasticity allows an organization to choose its own destiny, become versatile, and dare more than others. Its success lies in a set of abilities called the Magic 7: Purpose: Your company must discover, select, and express what it is meant for. Focus: Your company must have the courage to ignore everything that is not in line with its purpose, and then see that purpose through. Culture: Your company must create the conditions that allow people to work across boundaries and outside of predefined roles. Spirit: Your company must inspire people to feel part of a cause that is bigger than they are. Networking: Your company must provide the means, freedom, and encouragement for people to nurture and grow their internal and external networks continuously. Knowledge: Your company must encourage experts to provide their knowledge and make it readily available to everyone who needs it. Leadership: Your company's leaders must model and personify the characteristics they want others to adopt. Silo thinking? Poor collaboration? Weak earnings? Strategies that gain no traction? Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel is the answer. It shows you how to cultivate each of the seven disciplines to infuse Plasticity in an organization. That-along with razor-sharp strategy and crisp execution-will unleash the power you need to reach both personal and corporate goals. You might even change the world.

There's a new buzz phrase in the air: Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). Corporate executives know it's necessary, but there's only one problem. Nobody yet knows how to do it. Or they think it's all about bashing your vendors over the head until they reduce the price another 4%. Supplier Relationship Management: How to Maximize Vendor Value and Opportunity changes all that. Containing the best and most innovative advice from the operations and procurement experts at consultant AT Kearney, this book shows that SRM is at root a strategic discussion requiring cross-functional interaction and internal alignment at the highest levels. It requires an honest appraisal of the value that suppliers now bring to your firm, as well as their potential value. It then requires a frank and constructive business-to-business dialogue about how to improve the relationship. When this happens, a company reaps myriad benefits, ranging from new opportunity to added value to competitive advantage-and, quite likely, to overall (and sometimes substantial) cost reductions. This book shows the most concrete methods you can use today to: Identify value-adding opportunities in the supply chain Work closely with suppliers to maximize the benefits Work the "Critical Cluster" of suppliers, where the greatest opportunity for advantage lies Review suppliers to encourage constant gains in quality and cost Turn your SRM strategy into a major competitive advantage Supplier Relationship Management introduces and explains the Supplier Interaction Model, a key tool that will help you get the most from your supplier relationships. It segments the supplier universe into nine categories, from those you want to run away from fast to those so good and so useful to your organization that it can make sense to invest in them directly. Numerous case studies show how to apply the principles to your situation. Supplier Relationship Management burns off the fog that has surrounded the procurement process for far too long. It is the definitive guide for business executives who want to get the maximum benefits from suppliers and gain very real advantages over competitors.

The bestselling Purchasing Chessboard (R) concept, used by hundreds of corporations worldwide to reduce costs and increase value with suppliers, is the topic of this successful professional book now published in its third edition. The 64 squares on the Purchasing Chessboard provide a wealth of methods that can be applied either individually or in combination. And because many of these methods are not customarily used by procurement, the Purchasing Chessboard is also the perfect tool for helping procurement professionals to think and act outside the box and find new solutions. A well tested concept that works across all industries and all categories in any given situation, it is little wonder that business leaders and procurement professionals alike are excited by, and enjoy strategizing around, the Purchasing Chessboard. It encourages greater rigor and creativity and the building of world class capabilities. The explosive growth in analytics and the rise in the number of specialists in procurement practice have taken the application of the Purchasing Chessboard to new levels. This third edition of the book includes a rich assortment of case examples to reflect the lessons learned across geographies and industries. Some of the chapters have also been updated to accurately reflect these trends.

Die Konzentration am Lieferantenmarkt, steigende Energiepreise und der Ressourcenhunger von schnell wachsenden Volkswirtschaften wie China machen es immer schwieriger, im Einkauf Preissenkungen durchzusetzen. Um Unternehmen dabei zu unterstutzen, die neuen Herausforderungen im Einkauf zu meistern und signifikante Wertbeitrage zu erzielen, haben die Autoren dieses Buchs das Einkaufsschachbrett entwickelt. Jeder Konstellation aus Nachfragemacht und Angebotsmacht weist es eine angemessene Einkaufsstrategie zu.