by Janice Marquardt | Sep 29, 2026 | Processes, Supply Chain Career
So your CFO/COO/CEO has told you to go find value in your supply chain, and they probably mostly mean savings. You might not have the infrastructure to run e-auctions (although if you want to run a couple without having to purchase software licenses, drop me a line),...
by Janice Marquardt | Sep 1, 2026 | Processes, Supply Chain Career
I’ve worked in and with quite a few supply chain teams. I’ve worked with small teams, large ones, from old companies and new ones; yet none of those factors actually affect a team’s “busyness.” More importantly, an extremely busy team is not always a very productive...
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 | Mar 10, 2026 | Contracts, Savings
Cash flow is always important to any business. But when times get a bit tight, suddenly cash flow comes into sharp focus and executives start asking how to improve it. We are in an era where companies everywhere are holding cash to pay tariffs, systems are changing as...
by Janice Marquardt | Aug 5, 2025 | Savings, Supply Chain Career
Like any industry, procurement has its lingo. RFP, RFI, RFX, bids, suppliers vs. vendors (that’s a whole other topic!), maverick spend, cost avoidance, tail spend, e-auction, TCO, punchout, and a myriad of other things. But presiding over all of these other terms:...
