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Supply Chain

5 Best Practices in Supply Chain Resilience

A chain held together by rope, indicating supply chain resilience.

The world is a riskier place. Before COVID hit, companies expected to see disruptions to their supply chains lasting one to two months every three-and-a-half to four years, interspersed with several shorter-lived hiccoughs. This grim outlook reflects two realities. One, the climate is warming and serving up more frequent, more…
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The Spend Profile: It’s Time You Got to Know Your Own Company

No, procurement officers, it’s not your imagination. People are staring. All eyes are on you. Hellish 2020 may be over, but now it’s February 2021 and companies are desperately trying to identify areas of cost-saving opportunity while shoring up a teetering supply chain. It’s time to step into the breach.

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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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How agile is your supply chain?

Three people staring at a ticking clock, wondering if they have an agile supply chain

Now is the time to ensure you can respond quickly to changes in your supply chain. ‘Let’s face it – it can’t get any worse.’ This came from a man on ABC News, talking about the impact of COVID-19. It’s an optimistic statement at best, but more likely famous last…
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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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Procurement Challenges Facing CPOs

A chain with a weak link, and text asking how resilient is your supply chain

Travel to Australia is down by 60% due to COVID-19. It’s just one of the many blows to the economy caused by the pandemic. This unprecedented drop in GDP is leading to a potentially seismic shift in how procurement is viewed and how it can make organisations across Australia more…
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Supply Chain Risk Management: How to Spot Potential Failures

A woman wearing a mask, a Hong Kong protester and a kangaroo trying to escape bush fires all lead to supply chain risk

We live in turbulent times. In the first seven months of 2020, we’ve had bush fires, mass unrest leading to protests in Hong Kong and the US, rising tensions with China that have seen government manufacturing incentives move elsewhere, and, most disruptive, the COVID-19 pandemic. And there’s still five months…
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Business Continuity: How Will Your Business Cope When Disaster Strikes?

Man in trouble because he didn't have a business continuity plan

COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of many festivals and events. In some cases, permanently. Wimbledon, however, will live on, due in no small part to their pandemic insurance. The losses from this year’s cancelled tournament will be covered by a payout of $226 million. That’s some mighty handy risk…
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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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COVID-19: Transforming the Procurement Landscape

Procurement in the era of COVID-19

Working From Home memes have gone to a new level since the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them focus on the lack of work being done when the boss isn’t around to look over our shoulder, which is one reason why companies have been loath to embrace the work from home…
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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.