MwDA Meeting Spotlights World's 9th Wonder!
American Supply Association

Paul Kasriel of Northern Trust addresses   participants at the 2011 MwDA Annual Meeting   & Dinner November 14

Persons attending the 2011 Annual Meeting & Dinner of the Midwest Distributors Association witnessed what might be considered a wonder of the modern world — an economist who doesn't mince words! That was dinner speaker Paul Kasriel, senior vice president and chief economist for Northern Trust, whose 2008 economic forecast was cited by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top five in an annual survey of economists. In 2009 he was credited by WSJ as one of the few who identified the housing bubble forming early on and the ensuing financial market havoc when the bubble burst.More

Business Group Tees Up 2012 Fight Over Healthcare
American Supply Association
A new report released by the National Federation of Independent Business's (NFIB) Research Foundation tells us what many have already suspected. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) raises costs and uncertainty for small- and medium-sized businesses. Among many unsettling provisions is the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) included in the overhaul that was signed into law last year and goes into effect in 2014. If implemented, the HIT will raise a total of $87 billion in the first ten years and $208 billion in the second ten years.More

Supercommittee Meltdown: Behind the Scenes
Politico
Chances to reach a deal by the moribund supercommittee fell to two of the most important men on Capitol Hill not elected to Congress — David Krone and Barry Jackson. Krone, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) chief of staff, and Jackson, the top aide to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), had been quietly deputized to find a last-ditch deal and avert yet another failure of Congress's own making. Both had been here before — they were instrumental in preventing the government from shutting down this spring and raising the national debt ceiling this summer.More

Failure to Mitigate Supply Chain Risk to Cost Companies Billions in 2012
Procurement Leaders Network
Chief procurement officers at the world's largest companies predict their businesses, unable to manage the range of risks affecting their global supply chains, will lose more than $222 million each, on average, over the next 12 months as a result of supply chain disruptions, according to a recent report. Commodity volatility, adverse weather conditions and a range of other threats featured heavily in 2011 and, despite the measures taken to combat these events, the sentiment among procurement executives is that 2012 could prove to be another costly year.More

Supply Chain Management Risk 2.0
Supply Chain Digital
Ten years ago, an organization could expect to identify its suppliers and have a general understanding of where they operated. These days a company's suppliers regularly move materials and goods around the globe across dozens of trade lanes, with each supplier maintaining its own supply network. It all adds up to organizations having less visibility into their full supply profile at a time when disruptions — and their impacts — are growing. Effective supply chain management in this global economy requires an approach that encompasses more than just-in-time delivery and insurance against damages.More

Tomorrow's Supply Chain Leaders — Do They Know the Fundamentals?
The 21st Century Supply Chain
Many of the current supply chain managers are transplants from other parts of their companies, with no formal schooling in the discipline. So what are the potential risks of filling these roles with managers from other parts of the business? To understand the potential risks, one must understand the key ingredients which make C-level supply chain executives successful.More