Everyone waits, as we go to press, to see how domestic political forces will impact the U.S. business climate right from the 2013 get-go. If ever “waiting with bated breath” was a relevant turn of phrase, it is probably now.

While both the near-term U.S. fiscal policies and the ongoing debt crisis in Europe will strongly influence the outlook for 2013, the further removed we are from the depths of the 2008 recession, the more companies want, and need, to shift from defensive to more offensive market-focused supply chain strategies. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’m in the process of developing the 2012 Supply Chain Management (SCM) Buyer’s Guide, which will be discussing the challenges that businesses face with managing their supply chains and the role of software in mitigating those challenges, I thought it would be worthwhile to conduct a short survey and see how companies today are faring with some important SCM issues. This survey will shed light on the areas often eluding businesses and that are wreaking havoc on their supply chains, as well as areas that are receiving much attention. The results, as well as recommendations for improvement, will be integrated into the buyer’s guide, which is slated for publication in March of this year. Read the rest of this entry »