SYNERGY 2009 Speakers
Corporate United will be hosting its eighth annual SYNERGY spend management conference May 12-14 in Chicago. The goal of the conference is to educate our members and invited guests on best practices to enable success in an almost unprecedented economic environment. This year’s speakers will face the topic of the current global economic crisis head on, and attendees will certainly come away from the conference better prepared to address and solve the resulting issues and challenges. Additionally, we will continue our tradition of creating a forum for corporate collaboration and networking among the leading supply chain and spend management professionals in attendance.  

Over the past eight years, SYNERGY has earned a reputation as one of the most highly anticipated indirect spend management conferences for professionals across all industries and geographies in the U.S. In fact, attendee registration for this year’s event is 25% ahead of our record pace in 2008. To that end, we could not be more pleased with the caliber of speakers this year’s conference has attracted.

Following is a list of SYNERGY 2009 topics. We are confident that each of the presentations will provide significant value for the attendees. For additional information on the speakers, program updates, and to register for the conference, please visit our website at www.corporateunited.com.


It’s OK to Steal
There’s never been a better time to start stealing...market share.

Presented by Jim Donald, former CEO, Starbucks Coffee and Pathmark Supermarkets

Companies have lots of options in 2009. They can “hunker down,” bury their heads in the sand, and try to wait out these gloomy economic times. They can focus on the financial pages or the stock ticker that is burned into their TV screens and go catatonic thinking about the bad news. They can become the “Chicken Littles” of business, holding meeting after nervous meeting about how the sky (and their stock) is falling. Or they can embrace the opportunities inherent in a time of crisis and get proactive. Leaders in business have to meet the challenge head on first by showing their companies that stealing market share in this environment is not only possible, but critical, as they begin to prepare for “life after the recession.”


Market Update

Presented by Mickey North Rizza, Research Director, AMR

At a time when spend management professionals have more questions than answers, don’t miss this opportunity to hear from one of the industry’s leading thinkers. Coming from her position as one of the world’s top supply chain analysts, Mickey is uniquely positioned to discuss what the best companies are doing to weather the storm.


Are You a Skeptic or a Visionary?
Balancing Relationships and the Need to Renegotiate

Presented by Dawn Tiura Evans, President and CEO, Sourcing Interests Group

Companies worldwide are facing recessionary pressures to reduce costs and improve bottom-line performance. For many, more cost reductions seem unattainable – but they are necessary to stay in business. This session will share emerging best practices as sourcing takes a seat in the boardroom once again. We will discuss how companies are learning to “do more with less” and to balance long-term relationships with suppliers with the need to renegotiate discounted prices. The freezing of the credit markets and shortage of liquidity, data security and privacy issues, U.S. jobs policy and emerging markets will be discussed with an emphasis on how sourcing and outsourcing will be impacted. This session is designed to share what companies are doing to hedge market volatility, deal with insourcing and outsourcing issues, and collaborate. The session will also address how leaders envision sourcing trends evolving in 2009 and into 2010.  


Best Practices or Best Intentions?
Effectively Integrating Account Management with Supply Management

Presented by Vaughn Hovey, Lecturer, The Ohio State University

A lot of investment and attention has been paid to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) tools and processes in recent years. In view of this we should expect to see increased communication, enhanced collaboration, improved business processes, and more innovation between suppliers and customers; yet many surveys indicate that the overall benefits of these two major processes haven’t been realized. Both suppliers and buyers talk about best practices which drive value yet there may be some inhibitors or barriers to the overall results desired. This presentation will cover some observations about the interactions and integration of these critical “customer and supplier processes” that ought to enhance the mutual relationships.


Taking Care of Business
How Procurement Can Move Upwards In the Downturn

Presented by Geraint John, Editor-in-Chief, CPO Agenda

In these tough economic times, procurement is under pressure to cut costs, improve working capital and secure supplies. But how can forward-thinking CPOs balance these traditional demands with longer-term objectives in areas such as strategic supplier relationship management, innovation and sustainability? With the spotlight on them, how can they use the opportunity to “upsell” procurement’s value contribution so that their functions are better positioned for the economic recovery? Drawing on new international research, Geraint will look at how the recession is impacting procurement and how CPOs are responding.


Collaborating to Contract
How Real Partnerships Lead to Valuable Contracts

Presented by Tim McCarthy, Director of Contracts and Pricing, Rockwell Automation

“Collaboration” is getting a lot of play time in professional journals and associations that deal in thought leadership pertaining to contracting and the relationships between buyers and sellers.

It could be argued, especially in today’s economic environment of uncertainty and risk, that it is all the more vital for those of us engaged in supply chain activities to care a lot more about who we are dealing with, how to make our engagements more value-added, and cultivating relationships with a longer view in mind.  

“Price is not the only thing that matters” may be effective when dealing with price sellers, but this rarely is the case and only becomes a barrier in dealing with sophisticated value sellers. In this session, Tim will explore why the contracting game is so difficult, what are the competing objectives of the parties involved, and challenge the audience to change the tenor of their engagements.


Collaborative Negotiation Skills for the Procurement Professional
Adapting Your Approach in the Current Economic Environment

Presented by Stephen Frenkel, Director of Negotiation Programs, MWI

Based on principles developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project and by Roger Fisher, co-author of the bestseller Getting To Yes, this session will introduce participants to a collaborative approach to negotiating that will produce better outcomes for all parties, while enhancing long-term working relationships.  

Among other points, attendees will gain a new awareness of the complexities of negotiation, insights into collaborative problem-solving methods, and a variety of other critical negotiation skills.


Understanding Carbon Markets
How Carbon Credit Trading Will Affect You

Presented by Mike Shaut, President, Carbon Vision

In the newly emerging carbon cap and trade economy there will be losers and winners and a massive redistribution within and between industries. Legislation is already in place in Europe, is unfolding regionally in the US, and with the Obama Presidency is likely to be adopted nationally soon.  

The carbon market is expected to exceed $1 trillion in the next ten years. What is likely to emerge as the plan of regulation? Who will be regulated and what will a cap and trade system mean to domestic businesses?  The companies that take the time to understand and take proactive action on this issue will benefit and there are steps companies can take to profitably capitalize on this trend.


Virtual Conferencing 3.0 - Increase Business Efficiency, Decrease Business Expenses

Presented by Marty Dunne, Executive Vice President, InterCall

Desperate times call for smart measures. One of the smartest ways companies are cutting expenses in these challenging economic times is by reducing their business travel and bottom-line impacting travel related expenses. But how does a company effectively cut travel, what strategy should be used to make some very important decisions:  where should travel be cut, under what criteria and when?
 
This presentation will address these challenges and provide detailed insights into how to use virtual conferencing 3.0 tactics such as audio, web and video conferencing solutions to develop an effective, turnkey travel reduction plan that will significantly reduce business travel expenses while enabling effective, efficient and personal meetings.


Benefits of Services Procurement Management (SPM)

Presented by Kip Wright, President, TAPFIN Process Solutions

Services procurement management (SPM) provides organizations with more information and empowerment by extending traditional vendor management services into project and services spend. SPM delivers high potential for significant price improvements through more effective spend management, with services spending representing 30% to 60% of all company spending. The potential benefits of such a program are huge in terms of lowering costs for services, selecting better service providers, and reducing the expenses associated with tracking the performance of services providers.


Implementation Process in a Decentralized Organization

Presented by Jerome Gerber, Regional Vice President, Volt Workforce Solutions

For many decentralized organizations, implementing a centralized service throughout the space proves difficult. With efficiency as one of the desired goals, centralization of a service across an organization can offer a more controlled and effective approach. In addition, centralization oftentimes brings much needed consistency, leading to a more cost-effective and easy to manage approach. Taylor Corporation, a Corporate United member for more than five years, is made up of over 100 individual companies that, in many cases, operate as individual business operations. In order to implement a comprehensive talent acquisition strategy across the entire enterprise, Taylor partnered with Volt in 2007 to begin a multi-phase national roll-out of all Taylor locations. The purpose was, to supply recruiting support, utilizing Volt branch offices and over 20 supporting temporary providers under a single program.  

This presentation will share strategies used to successfully implement a centralized service in a decentralized organization driving bottom line results.


Next Practices in Relocation & Assignment Management

Presented by Aram Minnetian, President, Weichert Relocation Services

Foreclosures continue at an alarming pace, the global economy is slumping, assignment costs are spiraling and home prices are collapsing, fueling increased costs and reluctance to relocation. The need for creative mobility solutions has never been stronger. Yet most companies are managing their relocation spend the same old way, trying to drive meaningful cost reductions from the RFP process. The reality is that our industry’s best practices simply will not take you, your employees or your company where you need to go.  

In this interactive forum attendees will have the opportunity to learn about innovative, “Next Practices” that can market proof your program and deliver more effective mobility programs, and through case studies the presentation will identify employers that are implementing them and benchmark their results.