Nuggets of wisdom to expand your perspectives…
…on leadership, organizational effectiveness, procurement & supply chain management, change management, personal effectiveness, career growth and success, and Africa.
My work is frequently featured in print and online media, white papers, round-table conferences, expert panels and other similar events. For example, I was on the advisory board for The Logistics & Supply Chain Forum; an advisory panellist for Supply Management; a member of Logistics Europe Supply Chain Vision Group; and a featured adviser on the inaugural Procurious Career Boot Camp.
You can view some of my related work and media features below.
Purchasing Process and Responsibilities
Purchasing has recently been in the spotlight as organizations have sought to manage spend tightly during the economic downturn. One aspect of the purchasing activity that is frequently fraught with internal conflict and misunderstanding is the actual process of...
read moreExpert Panel Advice for Supply Management Magazine
QUESTION: “What should a typical procurement process like? Who should be responsible for getting approvals for items to be procured. Is it the person requisitioning the item, or should this lie with the procurement team?” — Assistant Administration Manager, Abuja,...
read moreBad Times for Business, Good Time for Change
I had a meeting recently with two executives of a division of a large multinational business, which we’ll refer to here as Acme plc. We were discussing a change programme they intend to push through their supply chain and purchasing operations, and how I might support...
read moreHave You Found Your “L” Spot?
Something is afoot in the business world. Over the last year or so I have noticed an ever- increasing number of companies claiming to operate “LEAN”. Some even have “LEAN implementation” as one of their strategic objectives. This trend can be seen even in the jobs...
read moreThe Truth About Congo
The on-going violence and consequent human crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had extensive news coverage. But the news reports don’t really tell the true story. They highlight the plight of the Congolese people and blame the rebel Tutsi militia, led...
read moreLeadership Lessons from Mugabe?
Robert Mugabe’s disastrous leadership of his country, Zimbabwe, has attracted significant news coverage over the last year or so. With the consistently negative image we get of Mugabe, who would have thought we could learn anything from his leadership style? But we...
read moreBook Review—The Accountable Leader
My review of The Accountable Leader by Brian Dive, for Supply Management magazine.
read moreManufacturing’s Outsourcing Challenge
A recent article in an engineering publication outlined some of the contemporary developments in car manufacturing, most notably that Western car manufacturers today really do very little ‘manufacturing’. Instead they have transitioned to become what might best be...
read moreEvolution of Manufacturing
For traditional UK manufacturing companies the outsourcing of activities overseas has had a number of evolutionary impacts. Manufacturing itself has almost become “commoditized” in many sectors, and is less of a core competence for many erstwhile Western...
read moreAfrica’s Leadership Crises
“You lost, Mugabe—so I’ll be back”. That was the headline in the World News section of The Sunday Times of 4th May. And the week before that the same section of the same newspaper carried a different headline on the on-going situation in Zimbabwe. In fact, over the...
read moreOUT NOW!
