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Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Week That Was
The week that was: 19 August 08 - 26 August 08
It’s official – Virgin Atlantic is flying high. While Procurement Leaders has spent much of the past eight months reporting nothing but doom and gloom in the aviation industry, Richard Branson’s company has just announced pre-tax profits of £34.8m for its 2007/08 financial year, a massive hike on the £6m recorded in the previous 12 months.
10:36, 26 Aug, 2008
The week that was: 12 August 08 - 19 August 08
Last year’s Oscars were notable for the modes of transport taken by the stars to world’s most glitzzy awards evening. Out went the Limos and in came the hybrids, as General Motors ferried the likes of Tom Cruise and Dame Helen Mirren to the red carpet in cars as green as the leaves that adorn Hollywood Boulevard.
10:29, 19 Aug, 2008
The week that was: 5 August 08 - 12 August 08
When it comes to suppliers, size (despite what some people might tell you) does matter. A recent study by BT Business and Cisco, concluded that SME Suppliers were less competitive than their larger counterparts – with 52 per cent of those questionned claiming that SMEs were unable to offer competitive rates.
10:29, 12 Aug, 2008
The week that was: 29 July 08 - 5 August 08
While the 2012 Olympics have already been beset by all too predictable budgetary problems, we’ve heard barely a whiff of controversy surrounding the building of venues for the Beijing games, which kick off on Friday. And Procurement Leaders knows why – for the Chinese government budgets are something that live in trees and make pretty chirping noises.
16:02, 04 Aug, 2008
The week that was: 22 July 08 - 29 July 08
Politicians and big business didn’t appear to having too much joy so across the pond people are looking to another source of inspiration in an attempt to lower oil prices – god. And after last week’s respite maybe the group that likes to call themselves Prayers at the Pump is having the desired impact. Procurement Leaders doesn’t have a list of members but wouldn’t be surprised if it contained some high profile CPOs.
09:08, 29 Jul, 2008
The week that was: 15 July 08 - 22 July 08
In the recent past, supply chain demands have concentrated on speed, as the “we want now” generation has increasingly placed procurement under the kind of pressure that would have been unimaginable when Procurement Leaders was in short trousers.
09:57, 22 Jul, 2008
The week that was: 8 July 08 - 15 July 08
As we at Procurement Leaders will testify there’s nothing we like more than a good transfer saga to pass the time during the close season in the Premier League.
10:06, 15 Jul, 2008
The week that was: 1 July 08 - 8 July 08
You know that procurement is making waves when the sales guys start getting worried. And that’s just what’s happening over on Pipeline; a blog written by sales software provider, Renbor.
11:46, 08 Jul, 2008
The week that was: 24 June 08 - 1 July 08
Have your noticed your shipments taking longer to reach their final destination? Procurement Leaders has done some sniffing around and found that companies are beginning to instruct the drivers and pilots of their planes, trucks and cars to drive/fly slower to conserve oil. Easyjet has already cut its flying speeds on some of its routes by two per cent (I thought it took me longer to get to Spain at the weekend), and other look set to follow their go-slow.
10:02, 02 Jul, 2008
The week that was: 17 June 08 - 24 June 08
Some industries are fast emerging as being recession proof. Here at Procurement Leaders we last week reported that confectioners Cadburys, and technology-giant Apple, were enjoying better fortunes than most despite the soaring cost of raw materials, leading us to conclude that when times get tough there’s two things people simply can’t do without – chocolate (naturally), and iPods.
08:47, 24 Jun, 2008
The week that was: 10 June 08 - 17 June 08
On a day when inflation in the UK hit its highest rate for 11 years (3.3 per cent), Procurement Leaders has been noting that the situation over here in Europe is nowhere near as worrying as that in Asia.
11:41, 17 Jun, 2008
The week that was: 3 June 08 - 10 June 08
We've always got one eye on the future here at Procurement Leaders, so imagine our delight when we heard of Xeros - the washing machine of tomorrow.
09:54, 10 Jun, 2008
The week that was: 27 May 08 - 3 June 08
Truckers aren’t renowned for their patience and, after 12 months of non-stop fuel-rises they appear to have reached breaking point, as anyone travelling along the M4 corridor from Wales to London today will be witnessing.
14:47, 02 Jun, 2008
The week that was: 20 May 08 - 27 May 08
Truckers aren’t renowned for their patience and, after 12 months of non-stop fuel-rises they appear to have reached breaking point, as anyone travelling along the M4 corridor from Wales to London today will be witnessing.
11:58, 27 May, 2008
The week that was: 13 May 08 - 20 May 08
Anyone in procurement who imagined that counterfeiting was purely an issue for the Chinese authorities would have been shocked with the findings of a study published earlier this week.
14:56, 19 May, 2008
The week that was: 6 May 08 - 13 May 08
Whisper it quietly but Procurement Leaders is sensing that a recent rally in the much-maligned greenback could be sign of the first shoots of recovery for the beleaguered US economy.
10:43, 13 May, 2008
The week that was: 29 Apr 08 - 6 May 08
Many companies sourcing from China were doubtless buoyed by the news that the country’s authorities had opened the world’s longest cross-sea bridge last week.
09:49, 06 May, 2008
The week that was: 22 Apr 08 - 29 Apr 08
When companies the size of Adidas and Volkswagen signed up as Olympic partners it’s unlikely they thought they would be forced to spend most of their time in the run-up to the games talking, not about sport, but human rights.
17:06, 28 Apr, 2008
The week that was: 15 Apr 08 - 22 Apr 08
It’s safe to say that Boeing need another delay to the production of their Dreamliner aircraft like most of us need root canal surgery. So imagine the company’s surprise when a German magazine published an article claiming that Boeing’s customers faced another delivery ‘surprise’.
10:08, 22 Apr, 2008
The week that was: 8 Apr 08 - 15 Apr 08
A few weeks back in this column we commented on the renegades patrolling the paddy fields of Thailand in order to protect a crop that is becoming more valuable by the day.
09:08, 15 Apr, 2008
The week that was: 1 Apr 08 - 8 Apr 08
Now, we may be wrong here, but Procurement Leaders has never previously viewed India as a hotbed of sexual equality. Not for the first time, though, it looks as though we could be wrong.
11:44, 09 Apr, 2008
The week that was: 25 Mar 08 - 1 Apr 08
You would think that companies would have learnt their lessons when it comes to ethical sourcing, but as headline hungry editors dispatch journalists to the four corners of the globe (no such luck here I’m afraid) in search of exploited workers, it seems that some are still in need of a short sharp shock.
09:25, 01 Apr, 2008
The week that was: 18 Mar 08 - 25 Mar 08
At a time when procurement are holding the T&E spend purse-strings ever more tightly it’s reassuring to know that some companies are still doing everything they can to tempt executives into breaking the bank...
10:31, 25 Mar, 2008
The week that was: 11 Mar 08 - 18 Mar 08
For someone who sometimes struggles to remember what he did yesterday, it’s fair to say that my future planning needs some fine-tuning, the same, apparently, can be said for large number of companies when it comes to their supply chain (note to self – you’re not alone)...
09:14, 18 Mar, 2008
The week that was: 4 Mar 08 - 11 Mar 08
Eastern Europe may be one of the continent’s hottest outsourcing locations, but plans to lure more international investment to Germany’s economically challenged eastern region has hit a snag...
11:50, 11 Mar, 2008
The week that was: 26 Feb 08 - 4 Mar 08
Procurement execs spend a lot of time on the road, but the next time you think of downloading a file on your mobile outside of your own borders consider your options...
09:21, 04 Mar, 2008
The week that was: 19 Feb 08 - 26 Feb 08
We love a good first here at ELP so, as you can imagine, we followed the progress of Virgin Atlantic’s flight between Amsterdam and London yesterday afternoon (well as closely as you can without the aide of binoculars)...
15:09, 25 Feb, 2008
The week that was: 12 Feb 08 - 19 Feb 08
Whether is sinks or swims in a commercial sense remains to be seen but the launch of the world's first fully submersible car at last week's Geneva Motor Show has certainly sent tongues wagging and flippers flapping. "We always want to do cars that are outrageous, which nobody has done before…
10:44, 18 Feb, 2008
The week that was: 5 Feb 08 - 12 Feb 08
They do things differently in Abu Dhabi, a fact illustrated graphically over the past seven days. And whilst London – home of the queen, Big Ben and, of course, ELP - may consider itself to have taken a bold step with the introduction of the city’s ‘low emissions zone’, the Emirate has once again proved that their ambition has no bounds as they this week laid the cornerstone of the world's first carbon-neutral, car free, waste-free city, Masdar.
09:01, 12 Feb, 2008
The week that was: 30 Jan 08 - 5 Feb 08
Polls are always full of surprises, and although the findings of a recent study on ethical behaviour by the Co-op won't raise as many eyebrows as a survey that found that one-in-four people now believe both Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale are mythical characters, they are equally (if not more) noteworthy.
17:55, 04 Feb, 2008
The week that was: 22 Jan 08 - 29 Jan 08
Ever wondered what the key to building successful supplier relationships is? Well, ELP has some advice – get yourself a set of golf clubs.
09:21, 29 Jan, 2008
The week that was: 15 Jan 08 - 22 Jan 08
Here at ELP we’re always on the sniff for innovative approaches to sustainability and it seems that some companies – whether they’re trying to impress us or not - will stop at nothing to show off their green credentials in this hottest of topical areas.
10:20, 22 Jan, 2008
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