When I worked for TRW in the 1980’s, the company required everyone with purchasing responsibilities to take the Chester Karrass negotiating course. At that time …
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Maximizing Profits is a Strategic Mistake
Category Archives: Constituencies
Is Expediting Your SCM Strategy?
While the worst of the supply chain fiasco of 2020-2022 is behind us, elements certainly continue to challenge us daily. What we should have done …
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Can Silos Be Aligned on Strategy?
Wouldn’t you love to see an organization that was fully aligned across all functional arenas? We talk about specific excellence, like Nordstrom and service or …
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Partnerships and Unilateral Changes
Partner. Relationship business. It all sounds so good. But then reality slaps you up the side of the head. In a true partnership, can one …
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Could You Make A Forever Promise?
The business model in manufacturing and distribution has long been own it, sell it, get paid for it. For most of those companies, it still …
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My Call is Not Important to You
When a recorded message for customers is considered a snide comment you’ve failed. Yet the way to fix that is not to prevent customers from …
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Does Your Excellence Matter?
In manufacturing we constantly talk about continuous improvement to move ever closer to excellence. But if we increase productivity by 5% per year, are we …
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Firing Customers
Not all markets are good markets for you. Not all customers are good customers for you. And not all orders are good orders for you. …
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Should Your Products Be Smart?
Prior podcasts have introduced the digital transformation business categories of “machine health” and “connected employees.” In this episode we discuss “smart products.” Some manufacturing products …
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“Reducing Lead Time” is Ambiguous
In last week’s podcast I suggested any effort to reduce lead time start with the obvious (not to all, sadly). Define it. And I encourage …
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