While 20,000 dockworkers vote on a new five-year labor contract at ports up and down the West Coast, it’s a good time to review some of the issues and “lessons-learned,” both for contract negotiations and supply chain management. The 10-month labor conflict between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International ...

Even the best-crafted and well-established contracts and business relationships can suffer from a common but highly dangerous malady known as “strategic drift.” Strategic drift? In the world of procurement, strategic drift occurs when buyers and suppliers fail to pay proper attention to the relationship; they fall down in their communications. ...