Sustainability vs. Sustainable: Is your energy management strategy truly efficient?
At its core, the word “sustainability” is defined simply as the ability to continue at a certain level—no explicit consideration for whether something is “green,” renewable, or recyclable, and no defined parameters around carbon footprint. Simply: “able to continue." This naturally begs the question: is your energy management strategy sustainable? [...]
Is Your Procurement Department Burning Out?
“Everyone in Procurement is talking about burnout,” says Tom Mills, Head of Procurement & Properties at Bibby Financial Services, in his recent LinkedIn post. And he’s not wrong. Procurement burnout […]
Who’s Managing These Tail Spend Expenses, Anyway?
We’ve frequently discussed in recent years how leaned out procurement departments are increasingly vulnerable to attack by their indirect suppliers, on a range of fronts. Perhaps the most acute vulnerability facing these departments in 2023 is the inability to engage in any sort of actual expense management whatsoever, especially [...]
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Buyers: It’s time to take back your power. Here’s how.
The harsh reality is that at the dawn of 2023, procurement teams and buyers in general are facing an exceptionally challenging landscape, and the grand-scheme question facing these professionals is: “How can we reclaim some of the power we’ve lost?” [...]
The Unintended Consequences of “Net-Never” Payment Strategies
An accomplished procurement executive recently joked with me that their prior employer’s vendor payment terms were “net-never.” The phrase resonated with me and my team, as we’ve witnessed just how […]
Price = Checkers; Cost = Chess
With highly complex indirect services like uniform rental, focusing on unit rates is playing checkers. To play three-dimensional chess, you need to elevate your focus from rates/prices to all of the factors that ultimately drive your true costs. [...]
How to Better Align Your Pest Control Program With Your Food Safety Goals
In the past, we've covered topics like cost reduction and optimization related to pest control spend; this time, we'll offer tips on another frequently asked question: "How can I address my concerns of ensuring our organization receives the optimal level of service from our provider and our existing program is improved?" [...]
Contract Security Services, Part II: How can I fight back against rising costs and worsening service quality to get what I pay for?
Within contract security services, rising costs and lowering service quality are a curious contradiction to the established adage, You Get What You Pay For. In Part I of this two-part series, we examined the “why” behind the rising costs and lowering quality. Now let’s get into what you, as a customer of security services, can do about it. [...]
Contract Security Services, Part I: Why are my costs rising so much while service quality is worsening?
As a consumer of contract security services, you may feel like the old adage, You Get What You Pay For, has been turned upside down. If your company is like many others around the country, the quality of service you’ve been receiving from your security vendor has been dramatically decreasing, while your costs have been increasing—probably significantly. [...]
Inflation or padded profits? As suppliers levy excessive price increases, defend your bottom line
It is unmistakably correct that indirect suppliers are viewing real inflation as a margin-grabbing opportunity. What, then, can vulnerable buyers do to defend their bottom lines in these times? [...]
Spring Is Coming—Evaluate Your Pest Control Program Today
Spring is right around the corner, and while we’re all looking forward to warmer temperatures and longer days, there is no better time than now—before the active pest season arrives—to […]
Understanding the Costs of Convenience: A managed service is not the same as a managed cost
As convenience has grown in priority, various outsourced-management organizations have accordingly grown in popularity. Many of these enterprises—GPOs, IFMs, and brokers, to name a few—make their money (in whole or in part) as a percentage of the dollars being spent [...]