This company article from Serge Milman delivers a pragmatic approach to pricing and why this is as true for corporate procurement. Not only is Price important, but it is THE most important factor. It is the ONLY way we quantify and dispassionately measure results – particularly so for Procurement and Strategic Sourcing results. Price is King is as true for corporate Procurement, as it is in our personal lives. Price is king in our personal lives From our own personal…

In this article, Jonathan Paisner identifies the problems of an aging brand and what to do about it. Chapter 3: Age: The telltale signs your brand has grown old before its time – and what to do about it. This is the third and final installment of a series about issues that can “break” a brand. When B2B brands break, it tends to happen over time due to one or more of these three factors: Inattention, Evolution and Age. Previous…

In this article, Serge Milman explains the high costs of adopting a tail spend category. Unmanaged Spend ≠ Spend Category. Tail Spend is not a spend category, and thus cannot be sourced effectively. Tail Spend – or more accurately, Un-managed Spend – is an aggregation of spend and vendors that typically represent 40%-60% of total spend. Attempting to source Tail Spend as a category makes about as much sense as including Professional Services and Technology Hardware into a single RFP….

Jonathan Paisner shares branding insights and how to approach developing a brand name. How you name your products defines how you communicate about the core deliverables of your business. A well thought-out system for naming should be a natural part of developing and managing a brand. The first time I heard the word “nomenclature” was in high school chemistry. Mr. Platt said something about nomenclature in the context of identifying the atomic components of a given compound – and I…

If it seems like your company burns through money, Serge Milman may provide insight into the reason why.  If you’ve spent any time at all around Procurement professionals, then you’ve likely heard about Tail Spend Sourcing. There are numerous consultants, technology providers, outsourcing providers and even some Procurement Leaders singing its praises. That’s unfortunate. Organizations pursuing Tail Spend Sourcing are explicitly communicating that they’ve given up on managing 60%+ of their supplier base, and perhaps more importantly, that they are…

Umbrex is pleased to welcome Serge Milman with Sourcing Advisors Group. Serge is proven leader with extensive expertise eliminating supply chain constraints, generating 25%- 40% vendor spend cost reduction, and improving vendor quality of service. I lead through fact-based engagement, skilled at building stakeholder support, and have successfully improved team expertise resulting in more effective engagement and retention. He is a former executive with Mitchell Madison Group, McKinsey & Co and Wells Fargo Bank….

Jonathan Paisner shares the first article in a series of three that highlights the symptoms, causes and cures for a broken brand. Like the proverbial frog in boiling water, companies generally don’t jump into a brand that is confusing, misaligned, antiquated or irrelevant. But left unchecked, the steady trickle of strategic shifts, shiny new technologies, sub-brands, extensions, acquisitions, special cases and other everyday adaptations can conspire to turn the corporate brand into as much a hurdle as an asset.  So…

  Jonathan Paisner shares an evergreen post on what it takes to make a good tagline for your business.  How do we capture the essence of our brand in a handful of words? This sounds hard. That’s because it really isn’t the right question to be asking.  Better: What brief phrase can strengthen and deepen understanding of our brand? You can’t say it all. Don’t try. Name, logo and tagline partner to communicate the essence of the brand.  What you…

  Jonathan Paisner shares a video from his #be150 series on conducting an in-person work session.     Key points include: Planning Appreciating the novelty Working those interstitial moments   Catch the full video, Running a workshop in the time of COVID, on BrandExperienced.com.  …

  Jonathan Paisner shares his expert insights on branding in this new video series. This week, a 150-second overview of The Branded House vs. The House of Brands. There is a little bit of brand in everything your business says and does. We’ve created this series to give you a little bit of brand thinking to inject into your business strategy, and help you make smarter decisions. So today, let’s spend the next 150 seconds talking about brand architecture.  …

Jonathan Paisner identifies the cause of tension between corporate marketing and brand marketing, and how you can bridge the divide with a brand messaging format that communicates company vision and value for the end consumer.   B2B companies experience an ongoing tension between corporate marketing and product marketing – because their goals aren’t completely alignedFor corporate marketing, the brand is built upon a big idea that aims to capture the promise of the organization at a macro level. In technology…