<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--Generated by Squarespace Site Server v5.5.4 (http://www.squarespace.com/) on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:49:15 GMT--><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><title>Procurement Leaders Network - Procurement Blog</title><subtitle>Procurement Blog</subtitle><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/</id><link rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/"/><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/atom.xml"/><updated>2009-07-03T09:44:28Z</updated><generator uri="http://www.squarespace.com/" version="Squarespace Site Server v5.5.4 (http://www.squarespace.com/)">Squarespace</generator><entry><title>When IP theft goes horribly wrong</title><category term="Global Sourcing"/><category term="Risk Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/7/3/when-ip-theft-goes-horribly-wrong.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/7/3/when-ip-theft-goes-horribly-wrong.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-07-03T09:03:58Z</published><updated>2009-07-03T09:03:58Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[Many business leaders are nervous about operating in the Far East due to concerns over the loss of intellectual property. And rightly so, stories of cars being copied almost to perfection and sold on the open market within weeks of the official launch are all-too-common. In fact, IP theft in China is so embedded in the culture of the economy that many have given up trying to fight it.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Marketing procurement - does WPP news mean we've cracked it?</title><category term="Marketing Services Procurement"/><category term="Services Procurement"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/29/marketing-procurement-does-wpp-news-mean-weve-cracked-it.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/29/marketing-procurement-does-wpp-news-mean-weve-cracked-it.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-29T08:01:21Z</published><updated>2009-06-29T08:01:21Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[If there's one thing that has resisted the impact of procurement's influence more than most over the past few years, it's marketing spend. Still an intangible spend area in many businesses, marketing directors also enjoy a position of power, as well as a certain influence over most CEOs.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Innovation networks - are they procurement's responsibility?</title><category term="Strategic Sourcing"/><category term="Supplier Relationship Management"/><category term="Supply Chain Management"/><category term="Technology"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/24/innovation-networks-are-they-procurements-responsibility.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/24/innovation-networks-are-they-procurements-responsibility.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-24T10:51:29Z</published><updated>2009-06-24T10:51:29Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[A blog I wrote yesterday about how Taiwan Semiconductor Company has established a formal Open Innovation Platform with its customers has had me thinking all night (dangerous, I know).

While the cynical could legitimately argue that there's nothing new here - rather, it's a formalised version of relationships that have existed for some time - the problem comes when you try to analyse the ownership of the work that is being done in these loosely organised "networks".]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Cloud sourcing &amp; other innovations</title><category term="Supplier Relationship Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/23/cloud-sourcing-other-innovations.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/23/cloud-sourcing-other-innovations.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-23T11:12:40Z</published><updated>2009-06-23T11:12:40Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[There's an excellent blog over on the Financial Times website which talks about Taiwan Semiconductors' launch of an Open Innovation Platform - a new model which promotes the development of next generation chip technology.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Procurement hits the big screen</title><category term="Strategic Sourcing"/><category term="Supplier Relationship Management"/><category term="Supply Chain Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/23/procurement-hits-the-big-screen.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/23/procurement-hits-the-big-screen.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-23T09:22:31Z</published><updated>2009-06-23T09:22:31Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[Well, perhaps not quite the big screen, but a recent appearance by Mark Perera, CEO of the newly-launched Procurement Intelligence Unit proves that this profession is now firmly in the business spotlight.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Phrase wars: Vendors</title><category term="Supplier Relationship Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/phrase-wars-vendors.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/phrase-wars-vendors.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-19T09:51:15Z</published><updated>2009-06-19T09:51:15Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[A short while ago, we ran a Big Debate on whether procurement should refer to other business units as internal customers, the argument being that it immediately sets expectations of our profession being subservient to the rest of the organisation.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Guest post: Scott Forest, director of procurement, Kuehne &amp; Nagel</title><category term="Leadership"/><category term="Talent Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/guest-post-scott-forest-director-of-procurement-kuehne-nagel.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/guest-post-scott-forest-director-of-procurement-kuehne-nagel.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-19T08:41:14Z</published><updated>2009-06-19T08:41:14Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[The last Big Debate on whether or not procurement professionals should be awarded commission for successful cost savings and negotiations sparked a huge amount of debate. It seems that there is a fair amount of support for both sides of the argument. Here, Scott Forest, director of procurement at Kuehne & Nagel, puts his own arguments across.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>The long tail of recession</title><category term="Global Sourcing"/><category term="Risk Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/the-long-tail-of-recession.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/19/the-long-tail-of-recession.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-19T08:10:16Z</published><updated>2009-06-19T08:10:16Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[I attended an Accenture-organised roundtable in London yesterday, held at the Tate Modern on London's South Bank - a suitable environment to discuss the challenges that face modern procurement organisations. Afterall, the gallery is built in a former power station, and procurement, in my view, is the engine room of large organisations...]]></summary></entry><entry><title>How do you slash 20% off your legal bill? Outsource to India</title><category term="Outsourcing"/><category term="Services Procurement"/><category term="Strategic Sourcing"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/18/how-do-you-slash-20-off-your-legal-bill-outsource-to-india.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/18/how-do-you-slash-20-off-your-legal-bill-outsource-to-india.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-18T08:14:45Z</published><updated>2009-06-18T08:14:45Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[And so to a fascinating little story in The Times newspaper (apologies, I can't link to it as I'm reading it in the print edition on the train...).

The article reports on how mining giant Rio Tinto is trying to reduce it's annual £60m legal bill by 20% by sending much of it's work to India.]]></summary></entry><entry><title>One trillion dollars is a lot of cash to have tied up...</title><category term="Supplier Relationship Management"/><category term="Supply Chain Management"/><id>http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/16/one-trillion-dollars-is-a-lot-of-cash-to-have-tied-up.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.procurementleaders.com/procurement-blog/2009/6/16/one-trillion-dollars-is-a-lot-of-cash-to-have-tied-up.html"/><author><name>David Rae</name></author><published>2009-06-16T07:25:49Z</published><updated>2009-06-16T07:25:49Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-GB"><![CDATA[Research by global consulting and advisory firm Ernst & Young [I'm sure all these 'global advisory firms' used to be known as accountants, Ed] has revealed that large companies in Europe and the US have as much as $1 trillion tied up in working capital.]]></summary></entry></feed>