This started out as questions about Artificial Intelligence in business applications.  Then it got side-tracked and, it must be confessed, moved beyond Value Chain matters, except in the most philosophical sense of the term.  

Maybe you'll enjoy it nonetheless.  

There is a transcript here: https://www.forvm.online/forvm499_episode_16/

This podcast is a companion to a Linkedin article.  Both are about the difficulties that organisations face when they pretend to encourage innovation and change whilst clinging to, and prioritising, the goals of efficiency and reliability. 

It may be controversial, and I include a warning about sexual images, but I don't need to worry because no-one will read or listen to either.

Episode Fourteen invokes Adam Smith and Charles Darwin, to put the case for Procurement; not just its relevance to commerce but its central role in the development of humanity.  Never again let it be said that we undersell ourselves.

Episode 13 of FORVM499 takes on a story.  

Semiconductor supply intrudes regularly into major news headlines as this or that industry is forced to slow down due a shortage of chips.  Although briefly  eclipsed by the Suez Canal blockage, it's back.  This is a story that may be here for some time.  No matter what industry you are in, you are certain to be talking about the impact of semiconductor supply.

Unfortunately, that is not all.  The economic and geopolitical significance of chip production could affect everyone in ways we would rather not imagine.

If you would like FORVM499 to take on current supply chain stories, and to offer opinion and comment, please let me know.  It would be a pleasure to invite experts and analysts to research these and put you on the inside track.

Procurement is about leverage.  The more you have to spend, the better you can negotiate.  It is an age-old truism; and is still the best of best practice.  Right?

Wrong, of course

Any experienced negotiator will correct that myth; so a gentle reminder should not go amiss.  

Please forgive this episode being light on provocative challenge and long on personal anecdote.  I hope you enjoy it nevertheless. 

When is Outsourcing non Sourcing?

The story in Episode Eleven may (or may not) be fictional but everyone can recognise it.  Commonplace or not, like all stories, it needs to be created and told, and I am grateful to Dean Bennett for providing the inspiration for it from his wide experience.   

Corporate stupidity is a dangerous phenomenon.  It has always been with us and it isn't going away.  

Mostly it is ignored.  When that's impossible, heroic attempts are made to find rational excuses.  

The evidence stares us in the face.

Organisations that have expensively recruited top talent can be dingbats crazy.

How?

Thinking about Business Purpose requires a level of emotional and cognitive intelligence beyond conventional straight-line thinking.  So I am delighted that someone I much admire and am honoured to have as a friend, Theodore Milonas, has chosen it as his guest theme on FORVM499. Theo's career in Corporate Finance M&A, Consulting, Audit, Energy, Life Science is nothing short of impressive.  However, in this episode, he bypasses his business credentials and begins his story with what really motivates him, a passion for equality and justice.

Every organisation has an ESG* policy.  Few have a strategy or a plan.

Their thinking stops at the idea that 'doing the right thing' is good for reputation, risk-reduction, product awareness, staff motivation and other.  It does not consider what happens when benevolence conflicts with the bottom line; nor addresses the question, how much generosity is enough.

So it is good that, in Episode Eight, the Head of Procurement and Supply raises this with the company's CEO and Chair

The transcript of this podcast can be read here.

* Environmental, Social and Governance

Every organisation has an ESG* policy.  Few have a strategy or a plan.  

Their thinking stops at the idea that 'doing the right thing' is good for reputation, risk-reduction, product awareness, staff motivation and other.  It does not consider what happens when benevolence conflicts with the bottom line; nor addresses the question, how much generosity is enough.

So it is good that, in Episode Eight, the Head of Procurement and Supply raises this with the company's CEO and Chair

The transcript of this podcast can be read here.

* Environmental, Social and Governance