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 7, 2026 | Processes
Qualifying new suppliers is one of those activities that seems like it should be easy, but is surprisingly hard. I’ve seen companies of all sizes and in all industries struggle with supplier onboarding, qualifying enough suppliers for a given category (but not too...
by Janice Marquardt | Jan 20, 2026 | Definitions, Supply Chain Career
This topic is sticky. It’s ugly. It feels dangerous to talk about. And it’s an issue that impacts multiple departments, not only the supply chain. Worst of all, it’s an “ism.” Today I’m going to tackle the big ugly topic of nepotism: where it tends to show up, what it...
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 | Jun 10, 2025 | Creative Solutions, Supply Chain Career
To the chorus of a thousand clinking name badges, we sat down last week to the ISMWorld 2025 keynote speaker: Kevin O’Leary. “Mr. Wonderful.” His insights and thoughts over the next hour or so were fascinating, thought-provoking, and edged into thoughtful criticism of...
