by Janice Marquardt | Aug 18, 2026 | Supply Chain Career
The end of summer makes me feel a bit contemplative. Some of that is spending time in the Northwoods on one of my favorite annual family vacations. Some of it is knowing another summer with my kids at home has passed. All of this makes me ask myself about my regrets. ...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 11, 2026 | Definitions, Supply Chain Career
The roles we all play matter, and so do our names for them. I’m not talking about the roles of mother, sister, wife, buyer, etc. I’m talking about the professional roles of Consultant, Executive, and Coach. While there’s a lot of overlap between these three roles,...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 4, 2026 | Supply Chain Career
Summer has always felt like the beginning of my year instead of January. Part of that is all the years of being a student with an academic year starting in late August and ending in May, but there’s just something about summertime that’s full of energy and promise. I...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 28, 2026 | Supply Chain Career
My first boss in procurement used to tell me, “You can go to lunch with a supplier. But you have to be able to come back from lunch and fire that supplier the same afternoon.” His philosophy on supplier relationships was to keep suppliers a bit at arm’s length, make...
by Janice Marquardt | Jul 21, 2026 | Supply Chain Career
My career coach recently told me, “Networking is just building community.” The idea of “Networking”: my introvert self standing in a room, drink in my hand (often ice water!), mingling and talking to strangers for hours is exhausting. But the idea of building a...
by Janice Marquardt | Jun 30, 2026 | Supply Chain Career
Procurement can be incredibly variable in its workload. Some weeks we’re running flat out with multiple contract signatures, RFPs due, and technical evaluations completing ready for the next step. Some weeks are quieter with RFPs in flight, technical teams going...
