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Think Tank: Page 251

Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Economists

Is it a waste of time to make economic forecasts? Even the most respected prognosticators are wrong as often as they're right. And the most sweeping changes? Hardly anyone ever sees them coming.

Think Tank 26

Price Isn't Everything, But Supplier Auctions Still Make Sense

I've spent the last couple of posts urging procurement executives not to focus solely on price when they're choosing suppliers. Service, product quality, financial health, social responsibility and exposure to natural disasters and other potential disruptions are all elements that need to be factored into the mix. So you'd think this enlightened attitude would pretty much rule out the use of auctions for selecting vendors, right?

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Today's Chief Procurement Officer Is a New Breed of Executive

The notion of a "chief procurement officer" isn't new. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has had one since 1998, and the title can be found in any number of other government agencies and branches of the military. Private companies have embraced it as well, although the position hasn't enjoyed a solid footing in most C-suites for more than a decade or so. Maybe it was the success of companies like Apple, with its mastery of supply management, that convinced top executives of the need to elevate procurement to the highest levels of the organization.

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Got Cash? Why Not Spend Some on Your Suppliers?

As if corporations didn't have enough money sitting idle in their accounts today - now we learn that they've been borrowing aggressively, spurred on by record-low interest rates.

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The Industrial Internet: A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow?

A few weeks back I referenced the work of Robert J. Gordon, an economist and professor at Northwestern University. In a paper published last September for the Centre for Economic Research, he laid out the history of the first three industrial revolutions. And he asked whether a fourth, supposedly driven by the internet and other advances in information technology, could come anywhere near its predecessors in terms of productivity improvements.

Think Tank 09

Transport Funding 2: Gridlock on the Congressional Gridiron

The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, but given the state of the economy and other recent events, it's hard to feel positive about much of anything right now - least of all the outlook for transportation policy reform. So why is Joshua Schank, president and chief executive officer of the Eno Center for Transportation, "more optimistic than I have been in a long time" about the prospects for funding critical infrastructure improvements?

Think Tank 01

Transport Funding 1: A Cliffhanger Ending for 2012?

Think Tank 03

More Visions of the Future from the San Francisco Roundtable

Think Tank 08

Seers of the S.F. Roundtable Divine the Future of SCM

Think Tank 02

Memo to Megaports: These Guys Want Your Business

Think Tank 04

U.S. Celebrates Re-shoring, But Mexico Crashes the Party

Think Tank 05

Is This the Unlikeliest Place to Put a Manufacturing Plant?

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