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Procurement

Uncertainty is the New Certainty

All procurement teams need to ask themselves a question: are we getting any better at responding to disruptive events? Over the past decades, we’ve had plenty of practice. Climate change is intensifying weather events all over the globe, leading to more devastating bushfires, tsunamis, floods and droughts. In the background,…
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Procurement Can Drive Decarbonisation

How can procurement influence decarbonisation?

Hurricanes in the Philippines, cyclones in North and Central America, flash flooding in Afghanistan and, of course, bushfires in Australia. There’s no place in the world that isn’t immune to the devastating effects of global warming. As we draw inevitably closer to the 1.5°C increase in average global temperatures, things…
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The 6 Competencies You Need for Digital Procurement

Supply Risk Management

Digitising the procurement function is your number one priority. Along with nearly all procurement teams worldwide, you’ve already started this process. Unfortunately, you’ve no doubt discovered significant skills gaps preventing you from taking full advantage of all that digitisation has to offer. You’re not alone. 83% of respondents to an…
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The Fragility of Our Supply Chains Has Been Exposed. Now What?

For Barrett’s 12 Sales Trends Report last year, my article – We change, or we burn – argued that the Bronze Age collapse was a warning we should heed. Due to the complex logistical nature of the procurement process behind the production of bronze, the world of the Bronze Age…
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Procurement Consultant: Selecting the Right One

The right procurement consultant for your needs

If you’re in the hunt for the right procurement consultant, now is the time to strike. The pandemic has moved a lot of great procurement talent to the bench and, with the recession, many organisations are in the process of restructuring. Unfortunately, most restructurings aren’t perfect. One company’s misstep, though,…
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Make or Buy: It’s Time for a Rethink

What is the point of sales departments? To create markets and stoke demand. Sales departments have been a standard part of industry for so long that we sometimes fail to remember that, for much of human history, sales activity was business to consumer. Business to business sales wasn’t a concept…
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5 Auction Types You Should Consider in Procurement

5 auction type

Just last year, we published a blog outlining the value of a particular auction type: the reverse auction. It listed 5 benefits, which included: The reasons above are as valid now as they were a year ago, and will remain so in 2021. This has led in part to reverse…
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What part can procurement play in kick-starting the economy?

Melbourne is in lockdown. Again. Many are asking, ‘How did we get here?’. The answer is multifaceted and, unfortunately, procurement played its part. The Conversation recently published an excellent article on the role procurement had in Melbourne’s clumsy hotel quarantining, including its influence on the troubled private security industry. We…
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The 6 Key Skills You’ll Need to Support Business Recovery Post-Pandemic

Procurement Skills Assessment

Life used to be simple. There were blue collar workers and white collar workers. You either wore denim to the factory or starched and pressed whites to the office. Now, though, the coronavirus lockdown has introduced a “new” collar. The pyjama shirt collar. When we begin to leave lockdown, some…
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Buying from SMEs: The Key Considerations

A range of SMEs, which can stabilise your supply chain

Considered by some to be the weakest link in any supply chain, SMEs might just be the stabilising factor we need in what’s shaping up as a turbulent decade. For a few years now, I have contributed an article to Sue Barrett’s annual “12 Sales Trends” report. For the 2020…
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Comprara acknowledges the traditional Aboriginal owners of country, recognises their continuing connection to land, water and community and pays respect to Elders past, present and future.