Understanding how best to buy, from whom and when, is crucial to an organization's long-term success. This guide shows how to implement ideas that should benefit the profitability of an enterprise. It emphasizes the need for communication at key levels to ensure good teamwork and tangible results.
Did you really negotiate the best possible conditions? Are you so good as a professional purchaser in the company that you really enjoy (price) negotiations? In the future you will be able to answer these questions with a clear "Yes". This book written by the well-known negotiation trainer Urs Altmannsberger provides you with a convincing modular system with the best tools for every negotiation situation. In this way you will always receive the best possible purchasing conditions as a professional purchaser in the company and become a top negotiator yourself. "Urs Altmannsberger lives what he teaches - this can be felt in this entertaining and practical textbook and reference work. Some of the strategies and tools explained are so ingeniously simple that they can be used and implemented immediately and lead to ideal negotiation results." Stefan Stark, Innovation Manager Mobility Services, BMW Group "Top negotiation training using numerous practical examples: This book convinces through lively dialogues and a multitude of action alternatives." Horst Wiedermann, Chairman of the Federal Board of BME e.V. "This book should actually not exist! Because all negotiation strategies and tricks are revealed here." Peter Tschötschel, Senior Consultant, T-Systems International GmbH
Procurement can be your company's secret weapon for winning in turbulent times. In most companies, procurement is an unglamorous, unloved part of the business. A job in the procurement office? A fast track to nowhere. Sourcing and supplier management is strictly about costs, the thinking goes, and all that matters is playing hardball to get these as low as possible. No connection to innovation or strategy or creating positive value. Not so fast. As Boston Consulting Group thought leaders Christian Schuh, Wolfgang Schnellbächer, Alenka Triplat, and Daniel Weise explain in Profit from the Source, procurement should be regarded in a new light, because it has the potential to be a CEO's secret weapon in these fast-moving, disruptive times. The authors offer a wake-up call and a new strategic blueprint for leaders everywhere. With vivid stories and in-depth case studies, they illustrate that no other business function offers the same holistic view of a company—from suppliers who provide the organization with raw materials and components to consumers who buy the finished product. While it's true that a core task of any procurement function is to keep costs from spiraling out of control, the authors show how procurement can help businesses generate phenomenal value from five other sources of competitive advantage critical to success—innovation, quality, sustainability, speed, and risk reduction. Drawing on BCG research and the authors' firsthand experience working with some of the world's leading companies—in high tech, automotive, consumer goods, and many other industries—Profit from the Source provides proven strategies to drive new bottom-line, as well as top-line, growth for your company.
For many organizations, the best option for improving profits is to reduce costs. This handbook presents a long-term, structured approach to cost reduction through smart procurement practices. It provides readers with a thorough understanding of the philosophy, psychology, and practice of buying.
Category Management in Purchasing is a comprehensive guide to strategic category management, providing a step-by-step guide to its implementation and use. This book provides the necessary tools, techniques and applications that will enable the reader to implement this cost saving purchasing method. The 3rd edition of Category Management in Purchasing has been rigorously updated to reflect the latest thinking in the field. Jonathan O'Brien shows how a strategic approach needs to work effectively together with other approaches, such as Supplier Relationship Management. He has added important sections on governance, included more supplier and supply chain tools, and introduced a pragmatic route for smaller businesses or those who need step-by-step advice.The book provides case studies of real companies, including: IKEA, The Body Shop, NHS, Heinz, Cardiff Council, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Managing corporate spend is far more complex than conducting RFPs. Learn how the most efficient and effective procurement departments operate, control costs, enforce compliance, and manage indirect spend. Managing Indirect Spend provides executives and procurement professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to successfully reduce costs with a strong focus on the often-overlooked area of indirect spend. It also offers great value to those procurement and purchasing professionals aspiring to be leaders in the profession, regardless of the spend they manage. It includes an overview of the challenges faced when sourcing indirect spend categories, a detailed dive into the strategic sourcing process, tools that can help drive savings, technologies that drive efficiencies and compliance, and examples of success based on real-world experience. It is a how-to guide that clearly covers sourcing engagements of any complexity and provides the details needed to source effectively. The book is structured into sections covering the sourcing and procurement process, the tools and technologies, examples from the field, walkthroughs of specific sourcing engagements, guidance on building an effective sourcing team, and the information needed to become a best-in-class sourcing organization. Since the initial publication of this book, the procurement profession and the discipline of Strategic Sourcing have matured. Markets have changed, processes developed, trends have come and gone, and technology has experienced leaps and bounds, posing new and interesting challenges for procurement professionals. In addition to covering tried-and-true practices for strategic sourcing, this Second Edition discusses how strategic sourcing has evolved and provides an update on the techniques, tools, and resources available to purchasing groups. This book: Includes updated coverage of everything you need to know to source more effectively Covers the latest trends in procurement and sourcing, including technology, process improvements and organizational design Presents guidance for reducing costs through strategic sourcing, no matter what the economic climate or level of maturity of the existing procurement organization Shows how effectively managing indirect costs can provide a huge impact on bott m line growth Introduces Market Intelligence (MI), including techniques, tools, and resources available to procurement and supply chain management groups With tools, real-world examples, and practical strategies, Managing Indirect Spend provides insider guidance for big bottom-line growth through effective management of indirect costs.
An all-in-one guide to helping you buy and own your own business. Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own start-up seem too risky? There is a radical third path open to you: You can buy a small business and run it as CEO. Purchasing a small company offers significant financial rewards—as well as personal and professional fulfillment. Leading a firm means you can be your own boss, put your executive skills to work, fashion a company environment that meets your own needs, and profit directly from your success. But finding the right business to buy and closing the deal isn't always easy. In the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business, Harvard Business School professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff help you: Determine if this path is right for you Raise capital for your acquisition Find and evaluate the right prospects Avoid the pitfalls that could derail your search Understand why a "dull" business might be the best investment Negotiate a potential deal with the seller Avoid deals that fall through at the last minute Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, with the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.
This is it: the first guide on every source of used books to sell on Amazon. Bookselling veteran Peter Vally (of www.FBAmastery.com) collects ten years of Amazon seller experience into one place, and over 40 sources of cheap books to sell for huge profits on Amazon. In this landmark guide for Amazon sellers, you will learn: - How to profit off small press overstock sales. - Six places to source books just on university campus's (Hint: None of these are obvious). - The exclusive story of one seller who makes $30,000 a year and pays NOTHING for inventory. - Where to find people selling collections of thousands of books (note: This isn't about eBay). - Forming partnerships with used book "gatekeepers" - people who already process thousands of books and don't know what they're worth. - A full 5 pages on eBay arbitrage (including a simple tool for finding listings other booksellers can't). - Dozens of more sourcing ideas, from picking up library sale leftovers to negotiating with college libraries. More than just a checklist, each source I've used gets a personal story with profitable lessons. For Amazon booksellers, it all comes down to the sources. With good sources, even a complete amateur can run a profitable Amazon business. Part I: The book begins with a focus on the top 10 "core sources" that will rocket you to your profit-target - 10 places you can source books every single month with little guesswork. Part II: Then Valley gives you a list of "Supplemental Sources" to use at your leisure. Your base profit target it already covered, but if you want to go even bigger, this is the list. And you get 21 of these book sources. Part III: As if you needed more, the "Advanced Sources" 12 places to source used books if you want serious book-ninja status. There are more books in this world then there are people like us to sell them. We live in the midst of a virtual book river. In this guide, Amazon seller Peter Valley is going to teach you how to get in front of it. This is the largest and most comprehensive guide to finding used books ever published. Inside, you'll be reading the exact blueprint for what brings Peter Valley over $80,000 in deposits each year selling used books on Amazon.
A timely guide to making the best investment strategies even better A wide variety of strategies have been identified over the years, which purportedly outperform the stock market. Some of these include buying undervalued stocks while others rely on technical analysis techniques. It's fair to say no one method is fool proof and most go through both up and down periods. The challenge for an investor is picking the right method at the right time. The Little Book of Stock Market Profits shows you how to achieve this elusive goal and make the most of your time in today's markets. Written by Mitch Zacks, Senior Portfolio Manager of Zacks Investment Management, this latest title in the Little Book series reveals stock market strategies that really work and then shows you how they can be made even better. It skillfully highlights earnings-based investing strategies, the hallmark of the Zacks process, but it also identifies strategies based on valuations, seasonal patterns and price momentum. Specifically, the book: Identifies stock market investment strategies that work, those that don't, and what it takes for an individual investor to truly succeed in today's dynamic market Discusses how the performance of each strategy examined can be improved by combining into them into a multifactor approach Gives investors a clear path to integrating the best investment strategies of all time into their own personal portfolio Investing can be difficult, but with the right strategies you can improve your overall performance. The Little book of Stock Market Profits will show you how.