As the Holidays rapidly approach and the world economy appears to be coming out of the recession, here are some lunch links of interest for you:
Procurement Could Pay the Price for Lack of SRM
The day of reckoning could be close at hand for procurement organisations at some of the world’s largest companies. That’s the warning from John Henke, president of US-based consultancy Planning Perspectives, who believes that those companies that failed to develop sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships with their suppliers during the tough times, could find themselves on the receiving end as the global economy recovers.
Senior execs expect US VAT within five years
More than half of senior US business executives expect some type of federal value-added tax (VAT) to be introduced within five years. Acknowledging the need for additional revenue to help address the “growing chasm” between the country’s existing revenue flows and its built-in expenditure obligations, 57 per cent of the executives in a new Tax Governance Institute (TGI) survey said they believe VAT legislation will be introduced in the United States within five years, while 18 per cent expect it within 10 years.
15 Smart Guidelines from Little Black Book of Outsourcing Authors
There are many guidelines for how to minimize risks from global sourcing, but maybe none as practical as those published earlier this year by Douglass Brown and Scott Wilson over at The Black Book of Outsourcing.
They offer their recommendations for minimizing supply chain risks from offshore outsourcing arrangements. While they have a bit of an IT or business-process outsourcing slant, we think they are very appropriate for general product outsourcing as well:
