If a retailer really wants to compete with Amazon and the changing realities of today's retail environment, it needs to kill the IT budget, disband the IT Steering Committee and throw away the IT project list. It's time for IT to be moved out from under the CFO's reigns. It's time to let go of the past and start thinking about IT as a business enabler, unleashing its full potential to the organization.

Mike Jones, president of St. Onge Co., explains the value of total landed cost modeling, and how it's affecting decisions to offshore manufacturing activities.

Eight corporate teams that demonstrated how their supply chain practices reduced costs, streamlined processes, saved energy, and improved operating efficiencies are finalists in the eighth annual Supply Chain Innovation Award competition presented by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and SupplyChainBrain.

Stanford University's Graduate School of Business will host a one-day conference on socially and environmentally responsible supply chains. Entitled "Shared Value and Supply Chains - Strategies for Success," the event will take place on Oct. 10, 2012 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:20 p.m., and be followed by a networking reception.

Measuring the performance of people, especially managers and senior executives, presents a perennial conundrum. Without quantifiable goals, it's difficult to measure progress objectively. At the same time, companies that rely too much on financial or other "hard" performance targets risk putting short-term success ahead of long-term health-for example, by tolerating flawed "stars" who drive top performance but intimidate others, ignore staff development, or fail to collaborate with colleagues.

In spite of several laws passed in the last decade, we have not begun to scratch the surface of addressing the cost of healthcare.