Globalization and evolving social, economic and regulatory trends have elevated corporate competition to a new level altogether. For procurement departments in particular, cutting costs, doing more with less, and running agile operations are the new standards for success.

With their operating budget expected to grow by just 2.7 percent this year, procurement leaders are focusing their transformation efforts on cultivating procurement's role as a trusted advisor, investing in next-generation training and development, and harnessing big data.

Raj India Trading Co. found itself with a happy problem when it switched from importing bulky flower planters to smaller cremation urns: plenty of empty space at its warehouse in the Seattle suburbs.

Don't get left behind by more companies with more innovative and agile supply chains. Supply chain digitization is happening now. New networked technology platforms are co-evolving with new networked business models, together enabling companies to rapidly find, assess and integrate with trading partners in order to swiftly create and deliver unique and valuable products and services.

Developing leadership skills that transform the supply chain to new levels of excellence is becoming more of a priority for organizations. Supply chain organizations need to take a holistic, strategic and global approach to leadership development. APQC's research indicates that there is a significant gap between leadership competencies needed for an organization to be successful and the competencies that employees currently possess, suggesting that there is indeed a leadership skills gap.

House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz has introduced the Remote Transaction Parity Act (RTPA), legislation that would require all retailers that sell products in their state, even those who sell exclusively online, to collect the same sales tax.