The news this week was dominated by stories regarding suppliers to some of the UK’s most well known organisations as well as to the Olympics. Globally the last few weeks have been dominated by similar stories - supply risk, responsible procurement and talent have all been high on the agenda of late.

I was recently told by someone within the aerospace industry about a little trick airlines use to cut costs and it got me thinking about the importance of the small things companies can do without implementing wide ranging schemes.

At its core, business is all about people and interactions between them. However, very few organisations put interaction models at the centre of their strategic thinking or their organisational design. They should, because it is a very simple and efficient way to streamline an organisation and develop its interactions both with customers and suppliers so as to maximise value creation.

There is a significant opportunity for the procurement specialist to implement a procurement sustainability strategy, but first businesses need to understand the organisational benefits from this journey.

Procurement’s role in sustainability is predicated on its ability to influence suppliers’ compliance to sustainability policies, essentially policing the agenda. Yet given its unique role within the supply network, procurement needs to push for a more transformative role.

Companies pay a heavy price in lost capabilities when outsourcing a function. Is this out-weighed by the savings?

The world is on fire. The financial markets are teetering. Confronted with this kind of environment, now would surely not be the appropriate time to boast about achievements? In fact, that kind of thinking is bogging down business and functions and we're seeing that forward-thinking companies are prepared to shout about what they're doing well.

Indian Athletes are threatening to boycott the London games over a procurement decision allowing a sponsor to ’wrap’ the Olympic stadium.

Charles Dominick, CEO of Next Level Purchasing, recently wrote an interesting blog on certification. In it, he asked, "What is a more professional job: corporate purchasing or fingernail painting?" The answer seems obvious, yet, Dominick wrote, every state requires nail technicians to get training before they get licensed. There’s no such requirement to work in procurement, he says, nor any requirement for certification or licensing.

One of the big procurement stories from this year continued to rumble on this week as Foxconn, supplier to technology companies such as Apple and Dell announced that it would be raising staff wages and decreasing working hours after the Fair Labor Association (FLA) carried out its inspections at factories in Apple’s supply chain.