A Spend Management Caucus: Minahan's Town Hall Meeting
This first Town Hall event is taking place at Michigan State University, and Tim extended an invitation to Supply Excellence readers to participate. Unfortunately, I'll be on the left coast that day, but otherwise, I would have high-tailed it over to Michigan to be there to listen to and participate in the debate, as the participants are second to none. Tim's invited Whirlpool's Mark Brown, Michigan State's Joe Sandor and Kellogg's Alistair Hirst to lead the Town Hall discussion. What are some of the questions he plans to cover in the discussion? In short, it's virtually all the topics you read about on these pages every day. Just to name a few from his post:
• How has the declining U.S. dollar impacted your sourcing and supplier strategies?
• How have rising labor, commodities, and shipping costs caused you to rethink your China sourcing strategy?
• How are you assessing quality, performance, and supply risk in your global supply chain?
• Is the push for environmentally responsible supply a long-term business strategy, or just a passing fad?
Cool stuff. I wish Tim the best of luck in the kick-off Spend Management Town Hall meeting. But perhaps the irony of this is that I'll be asking a number of similar questions to the panelists at CVM’s Supply World on the same day in San Francisco. But the similarities will most likely end there. Consider that I'm guessing that I'll be chinos and Tim will be in a suit -- such are the cultural differences of the Midwest and Nancy Pelosi's city. But regardless, when it comes to planning an engaging panel discussion and procurement debate, great blogging minds think alike, I suppose.
- Jason Busch
Just a minor difference between the two of you, I guess, not even worth mentioning.
Heck, once you're an objective industry analyst, you're always an objective industry analyst, even after you go to work for a vendor.
Tim's a man of integrity and pretty darn insightful as well. I'm sure that he presents Ariba's offerings in the best possible light, and not one bit beyond that.
He's also willing to sign his name to his opinions. Are you?
Quoting your post: "I'm sure he presents Ariba's offerings in the best possible light." That's precisely my point.
Even though Ariba is a sponsor of this blog, Jason makes an effort to be objective, and to criticize Ariba when he feels that it is appropriate. Do you really think that Tim can do the same, as he might have done when he was an independent analyst?
Which is why it is worth pointing out, with some gentle irony, that there's potentially a big difference between Tim's "town meeting" and an independent conference.
With all due respect to John Madrid, you'll want a wizard like Tim along should you decide to make an attempt to enter the cave of Caerbannog.
Best comedy of all time.
"He'll do you a treat". "Look at the bones!"
Oh Tim, who is so wise in the way of analysts, you knew you'd get me going on this one! thanks.