From sourcing to delivery, the supply chain is now the most horizontal function in the enterprise, says Tony Pittman, director of global procurement at HP. And any role that has such wide-ranging impact, from how money is spent to affecting the customer's experience, needs highly trained managers and workers.

Weighed down by the size of its big-box stores and facing competition from more nimble online-only competitors, Best Buy is embarking on a "transformational strategy," its executives said. For the company's finance chief, Jim Muehlbauer, that will mean dealing with $800m in cost cuts over the next three years.

Project planning can be incredibly time-consuming and tedious, but it's worth it to keep a project running smoothly. A critical piece of the plan is creating your team. This task becomes easier when you know exactly who is available - with the skill sets you need - and what their schedules will be for the duration of the project.

Only 17 percent of sustainability experts rate the performance of corporate leaders in addressing the sustainability agenda as effective, down from 24 percent last year, according to a report by SustainAbility and GlobeScan.

Cyber-security breaches at major companies grab headlines as legislatures and regulators at the state, federal and international levels develop "rules of the road" for protecting information, especially consumers' personal data. Supply management professionals should be concerned that their systems and/or employees may be exposing their organizations to data breaches - opening the company to lawsuits, governmental enforcement actions and significant reputation damage.

Most companies go through some form of portfolio planning, whether they use that term or not, says Eric Symon, principal with Digital Tempus. He defines it as a strategic effort to determine "what products you're going to sell to whom, and what businesses you're going to invest in." The model can help businesses to understand which products are growing in demand, and which need to be phased out.