Global Supply Chain Management

Why You Should Become a Certified Supply Chain Practitioner

December 19, 2012

Blair Williams, Industry Professor, NYU-Polytechnic University

Report from APICS 2012

December 19, 2012

Abe Eshkenazi, CEO, APICS

Collaborative Execution: A New Best Practice in Global SCM

December 19, 2012

Mondher Ben Hamida, VP Product Management, E2open

Dropping E-Mail Support May Have Done Disservice to Best Buy Customers

December 19, 2012

Storefront Backtalk

Best Buy recently removed e-mail support from its web site, a move the company said was designed to improve response and to give customers the kind of interactions they seek. The problem with this change is twofold.

Wharton School Offers 3-Day Course on Retail, Shopping Center Development

December 19, 2012

University of Pennsylvania

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, have partnered once again to bring the retail real estate industry The University of Shopping Centers, on the campus of the Wharton School, March 4-6, 2013, in Philadelphia. The program will feature three new learning tracks, including the Executive track, taught by Wharton professors.

Would Keeping Research, Manufacturing Employees Together Make U.S. Companies More Innovative?

December 19, 2012

The New York Times

A growing chorus of economists, engineers and business leaders are warning that the evisceration of the manufacturing work force over the last 30 years might not have scarred just Detroit and the Rust Belt. It might have dimmed the country's capacity to innovate and stunted the prospects for long-term growth.

Holiday Retail Sales Expected to Top Those of Last Year By More Than 4 Percent

December 19, 2012

National Retail Federation

Eager holiday shoppers helped drive retail sales upwards in November, helping boost sales in the first half of the holiday season. According to the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade association, November retail sales (excluding automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) increased 0.8 percent seasonally adjusted from October and increased 4.4 percent unadjusted year-over-year. With this news, NRF is still expecting holiday sales to grow 4.1 percent over last holiday season.

People Favor Mobile Payments - for Others, Poll Finds. They Want to Keep Their Cards and Cash.

December 18, 2012

Storefront Backtalk

If you're looking for more evidence of the bipolar nature of mobile shoppers, look no further. The Harris Poll people have what you need. In what should be called the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) effect, some 66 percent of Americans polled said they expect mobile payments to eventually replace payment cards and even cash-but not their cards and cash.

Obama Administration Has Disappointing Record on Trade

December 18, 2012

Scott Miller, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies

For two decades U.S. presidents have consistently shared views on the need for a "level playing field." President Bill Clinton in 1992, President George W. Bush in 2008, and, most recently, President Obama in this year's State of the Union: "Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you"”America will always win." Despite that shared rhetoric, the weakness of the U.S. economy over the past few years has helped obscure the Obama administration's disappointing record on trade.