Madison.wright@4cassociates.com, Author at 4C

Procurement’s perfect storm: Silicon Valley Bank

This last decade has been a playground for the global technology ecosystem to flourish and enable positive disruption across every industry. The backbone and a key enabler of this has been Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), with whom many of the world’s largest VC investors bank with.

4 Reasons Why Sustainability Is Key to Commercial Success

In the wake of Shell and BP announcing record-breaking profits for 2022 driven by the increase in wholesale gas prices following the war in Ukraine, their sustainability targets have been placed firmly in the back seat. BP announced that its profits had doubled to $28b whilst also revising its commitment to cut oil and gas production by 40% by...

Dynamic Purchasing Systems – How on earth do you set one up, and what are the planned changes under the Procurement Bill?

Last week, I covered what a DPS is (Dynamic Purchasing System, and not Damage per Second for the gamers amongst you!), and the benefits to both you and providers. If you missed out on this, please visit here to catch up before reading this article

Dynamic Purchasing Systems – What are they and what are the benefits?

Many within Procurement have heard of Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS), as well as rumours of the good, the bad and the ugly. Whilst there is no disputing there are Regulations to govern the how and what, they don’t detail the why.

A COP-out or common sense? The wait for a COP-led global carbon market continues

COP (Conference of the Parties) global climate summits have been running for nearly three decades. The most recent of which, number 27, concluded on Sunday 20th November after 13 days of talks held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The planned agenda was rigorous and ambitious, but the reality was less productive, and the finalisation of some crucial topics was kicked like the...

The role of procurement in making direct-to-customer successful

Direct to consumer (DTC) or Digital sales channel is the biggest growth area currently across consumer goods. Initially championed by consumer electronic companies like Dell and Apple selling directly to consumers to better manage their supply chain or provide a better brand experience, it gained popularity in household consumer products with companies like Dollar Shave Club and its subsequent...

5 ways to make your supply chain more sustainable

In today’s world, it’s crucial for businesses to be socially responsible and accountable. Customers are becoming increasingly conscious about how companies operate, which has led to many businesses focusing on being sustainable. This has implications for supply chain management as supply chains, normally, make up most of a organisations emissions, and supply chains that are more sustainable tend to...

How Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) can strengthen your supply chain resilience

After the recent events of the past two years, Supply Chain resilience has now become the focus of companies and markets around the world. But what does it mean to have a resilient Supply Chain in today’s world? And how can the completion of Mergers / Acquisitions strengthen that resilience.

How can food manufacturers work towards net zero? The challenge of tackling Scope 3 emissions

The end-to-end value chain in the food industry, from farm to fork, accounts for 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With consumers rapidly becoming expectant of food brands, supermarkets and high-street restaurant operators to commit to net zero, how can food manufacturers take responsibility and make a meaningful difference to the average 92% of emissions that fall within Scope...

Creating Supply Chain Resilience

No one would dispute that the COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruption to global supply chains. Nothing like this had happened in decades, and many operators relied on strategies that only partly addressed their challenges. Then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has caused the greatest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War. Already, thousands of lives...

Equality in Procurement and Supply Chain Departments

There are many pieces of legislation that currently help govern procurement behaviours within a workplace such as the Equality Act 2010 and The Public Contracts Regulations which both provide for a legal duty to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity.

Does the future of procurement consultancy lie in alliances?

To address and explore the future of the procurement function, the key theme of the recent 4CP Group Away Day focused on emerging disruptive technologies – their role in disrupting procurement and supply chain teams and how they will impact the business’ ability to transform through technology, processes and people.

Global commodity impacts on consumer businesses

Oil and gas prices remain at elevated levels due to the Ukraine war. The governor of the BoE says rising global food prices are a “major worry“ with price inflation of 6.7% last month. The CEO of 2 Sisters, the chicken manufacturer said that the cost of chickens could rise by up to 15% this year as a result of the war in...

The Growing Impact of Climate Change on Commodity Markets

By definition, a commodity is a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type. Because of their substantially interchangeable nature, commodities trading has been evolving with humans since 4000 BC, when people in Sumer used clay tablets to denote the number of goods to be delivered.