iCPO: We’ve Got an App for that!

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the January-February 2010 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

January-February 2010

As the search for news forms of energy intensifies, supply chain professionals are presented with an unprecedented challenge and opportunity: To apply their managerial and analytical skills in delivering this energy to the end consumers. How effectively they respond may ultimately determine whether—and when—the promise of green energy finally gets fulfilled.

Browse this issue archive.

Already a subscriber? Access full edition now.

Need Help?

Contact customer service

847-559-7581   More options

Not a subscriber? Start your magazine subscription.

This isn’t your normal read. Pick up your iPod, find that 1969 Rolling Stones album with the cake on the cover, and turn up You Can’t Always get What You Want full blast. The step forward to imagine a business world (in the not-so-distant future) where the work day is no longer defined by the walls of an office or constrained by conventional work hours. A future where most of your co-workers reside not in the next cubicle over, but across the corporate campus, in another city, state, or even the other side of the globe. Far from being the exception, this is the new normal. In short, it’s a work environment that redefines the dimensions of time, place, and space. This is the fast-arriving future of the iCPO.

In this emerging model, traditional procurement organizations are being vividly transformed into virtual supply management functions. They operate online, on demand, leveraging new technologies for sustaining high-touch relationships and processes, and delivering new levels of strategic insight to the business. They not only focus on cost reduction and risk management, but also on innovation, top-line growth, and market expansions.

Once upon a time, these advanced activities would have been considered theoretical. But thanks to changing demographics, market expectations, and globalization of resources, customers and technology, the theory has become a practical reality. And we predict that as early as 2016, just six years from now, supply chain organization will be even faster, leaner, and on the lading edge of corporate strategy. Are you ready?

This complete article is available to subscribers only. Click on Log In Now at the top of this article for full access. Or, Start your PLUS+ subscription for instant access.

SC
MR