Companies can also eliminate unnecessary inventory by streamlining inter-company ordering, wrote Malcolm Wheatley for Procurement Leaders Executive Network.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Chief executive Martin Jay said: This revised procurement policy provides us with longer-term security and is another move to alleviating the peaks and troughs that are traditional problems in shipbuilding.

BBC: BAE, Vosper win destroyer order

The first phase of the partnership was to put together bids to supply aircraft components manufactured in China, said Zhang Wei, executive director of the supply-chain management and procurement division of AVIC International Holdings.

WSJ: China Eyes U.S. Defense Contracts

Yong Nam, the chief executive since 2007, has hired non-Koreans to run marketing and procurement, and proclaimed English as LG's working language.

ECONOMIST: LG v Samsung

After subsequently serving as executive director for a national nonprofit, Gerry now works as an independent consultant on marketing procurement.

FORBES: Organizational Culture: The Hidden Path To Success

Tony Collins, executive editor of Computer Weekly, a trade magazine which has specialised in charting government computer-procurement failures, says that Whitehall's inbred culture has proved resistant to learning the lessons of past mistakes.

ECONOMIST: Government