by Janice Marquardt | Dec 23, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Definitions
In many households this time of year, ‘tis the season of decorated trees and wreaths; stockings and candles. Some homes receive the royal treatment: garlands up and down every staircase, fully coordinated trees in multiple rooms, and a perfectly arranged nativity...
by Janice Marquardt | Dec 9, 2025 | Definitions, Uncategorized
The job market for procurement is weird right now. My LinkedIn feed is covered with people looking for work (especially after being laid off from big tech) and yet it’s also full of supply chain and operations leaders looking for strategic procurement talent. My...
by Janice Marquardt | Nov 18, 2025 | Definitions, Org Chart, Processes
I once had a supervisor who was obsessed with what he called “the 4-box model” of procurement. His version graphed supply chain complexity/risk on the y-axis and supply chain cost on the x-axis, classifying suppliers into one of the four resulting quadrants. Low cost...
by Janice Marquardt | Oct 7, 2025 | Definitions, Org Chart, Processes
A perennial favorite topic in procurement is category management. It’s one of the first steps in improving an organization’s supply chain maturity and is a huge step in going from a purchasing team of PO-cutters and expediters to building real, strategic, long-term...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 30, 2025 | Definitions, e-Auctions, Supply Chain Career
When someone sends me a list of items to negotiate using an e-auction, one of the first questions I ask is: “What is your award scenario?” While a procurement professional should consider this question long before a negotiation, Request for Proposal, or even before...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 9, 2025 | Contracts, Definitions
When I started helping businesses with their supply chains, I was surprised to learn how few had written contracts beyond purchase orders or maybe blanket POs. But I get it. Contracts are expensive, they don’t always seem to have value, and they take forever to...
