Publications / Studies
Sustainable Management in Emerging Economy Contexts
Socially and environmentally responsible management has advanced to the core of firms' value propositions. Especially in emerging economy contexts, corporate sustainability has emerged as a strategic priority for business leaders across industries. This shows an actual study of WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management. More...
RFID: The New Technology - Affecting Logistics and the Supply Chain
RFID – short for Radio Frequency Identification – is a technology which allows the unmistakable, contactless identification of objects, using radio frequency without line of sight being required. This means humans, animals and inate objects (e.g. goods) can be identified and allocated in real time. (PDF - 66 KB)
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Risk Management for Business with Low-Cost Countries (LCC)
Ongoing globalisation and market liberalisation are the foundations on which long-term business with low-cost countries (LCC) can be built. Globalisation itself is a neutral concept of a global economy in which work is divided worldwide to benefit from cost advantages.
Highly mobile capital funds made available by investors push the speed in which globalisation is progressing. (PDF - 78 KB)
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Controlling Outsourcing Partners - Making Procurement a Priority
Microsoft as a multinationals company was forced to find ways to control its 45 outsourcing partners. Questions were: How can savings be achieved if the outsourcing partner has 100 % more employees than Microsoft? Who takes responsibility? How many persons from their own staff should be engaged in controlling tasks?
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Marketing, travel management and financial services: purchasing demands professionalization
Corporations that centralize their entire procurement volume may be able to realize cost savings in a magnitude corresponding to the success effect of a turnover increase of 8 to 14 percent. A recent study identified 7 areas of non-tradional purchasing in need of professionalization.
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Combined Summary of Studies about China-Business
How China Compares With the Rest of the World
- Opportunity or Threat? Global Firms Must Learn to Leverage China
- Will Low-Cost Countries Live Up to Their Name?
- China Compares With the Rest of the World
China Sourcing Imperative
Summary
Sourcing in China is becoming an imperative. Wal-Mart, Ford, Philips Electronics, Thomson established sourcing divisions to buy directly from Chinese factories. The overarching objective is cost advantage. China is already having a fundamental impact on many industries, because a company can now source almost everything from China, also extremely high-tech products.
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The Outsourcing Shuffle
Every product has a life cycle. There are hot new gadgets, mature goods, and end-oflife commodities. If your product is no longer the hottest thing out there, it may be time to adjust your business model. To help our clients better understand their own outsourcing decisions, we examined the long-term performance of companies that had oursourced major components of their operations. We scrutinized companies and industries to find out what they did right and wrong, as well as to evaluate their long-term results. Our findings point to a clear relationship between a company's product portfolio and its outsourcing decisions. In fact, we learned that when manufacturers tie their oursourcing strategies to a product's life span, the results can be intriguing.
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Demand Management
Modern organizations are lean, effective and have the permanent target to find new cost-cutting opportunities.
One approach is demand management. Companies can cut the costs in certain categories in a short time between 10 % and 20 %.
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