Procurement officials should develop good supplier relations in order to maximize the benefits to the organization. This is sometimes challenging due to agency practices associated with restrictions on external parties’ communications. The restrictions generally stem from cases where abuse and undue influence have plagued the procurement environment with bad press and public distrust. The result...Read More
There’s plenty of talk about leadership these days. Whenever you tune into a subject, you seem to attract more of it. Similar to when you purchase a yellow car, you start seeing more yellow cars on the road. The same has happened with leadership. As I started talking more openly about the importance of leadership,...Read More
If re-opening schools in the midst of a pandemic and reduced budgets wasn’t challenging enough, school administrators and teachers are under added pressure to help students cope with and understand the issues of social injustice and racial tension that have drawn national headlines for the better part of 2020. Educators are challenged to better inform...Read More
It’s been said that communication is the single most important skill to the success of individuals in all aspects of life. I often listen to the advice that great communicators have to offer, such as Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robins, John Maxwell, Les Brown, and others. I also listen to experts dissect the different communication styles...Read More
The Ohio Schools Council is not your typical cooperative program. What sets them apart from other K12-focused councils of government and national public sector group purchasing organizations? OSC understands that delivering the greatest member value cannot stop at their menu of contracted suppliers. Giving members the ability to easily identify, compare and choose the products...Read More
It takes a team…! Whenever you see a successful leader, there is certainly a capable team beside that leader. As Dr. John C. Maxwell stated: “One is too small of a number to achieve greatness”. A leader can accomplish some goals but to reach significance a leader needs a team. Phil Jackson, the head coach...Read More
If your ERP utilizes one or more PunchOut-based supplier catalogs or marketplace and you are experiencing interruptions to your normal browsing or shopping cart functionalities, this may be the result of changes to the Chrome browser engine that Google began a limited rollout earlier this year. The update changes the way cookies are used to...Read More
REIMAGINING CHICAGO’S SCHOOLS After 10 years strategizing with leaders in the Chicago Public Schools system, Melissa Zaikos (MBA 2000) turned to the data to create a new public education experience for the city’s students. Back in 2011, when Melissa Zaikos (MBA 2000) began digging deeply into the standardized test scores of the Chicago Public Schools, she...Read More
The secret is out. The beans have been spilled. The emperor has no clothes. At least, that’s what a recent blog post from Mariel Reed, CEO of CoProcure, and the 2019 launch of the contract exchange site PPEx by cooperative industry veterans, Steve Hamill and Dave Trudnowski suggests to me. Like the boy who states...Read More
Twenty years ago, when national cooperatives[1] were just starting to form and piggybacking contracts and participating addenda were being added to the procurement professional’s toolbox, there was a compelling value proposition that promised these cooperatives’ customers (“members”) great savings of time, effort and the greatest reductions in overall cost. Whether real or perceived, savings across...Read More
