Technology and "Value Chain" - Noble's twin powers
Noble Group provides industry with the raw materials and transport resources that drive economic growth worldwide. Uniquely integrating the sourcing, marketing, processing, financing, insuring and transport of industrial and agricultural commodities, the Group links producers and consumers on a truly global basis. We gain more insights on their success factors.

E-Commerce: Explosive Revolution or Sustained Evolution?
The early hoopla about the potential benefits of E-Commerce has turned into a question mark. Pundits still extol the revolutionary virtues of E-Commerce on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, while major companies terminate or scale back their E-commerce initiatives. Will E-Commerce revolutionize supply chain management, is it another over-hyped flash in the pan, or does the truth lie somewhere in between? Why were expectations so high for E-Commerce?

Help! I'm being held hostage by my customers!
There is a major transformation in the focus of how companies make themselves more competitive. Supplier rationalization programs can have tremendous impact on bottom-line profit. However, today, companies also need to be pro-active in developing strategic relationships with their customers says Robert Dean.

Knowledge Management Today
Why is there an increased focus on Knowledge Management today? Clare Hart, President and Chief Executive Office of Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters company gives her insights.

What's Right For The Customer?
LexisNexis have five core values guiding its evolution from being a company selling information products into being a knowledge management solution provider. Eva Au, Managing Director Asia, was an immediate convert when she first discovered LexisNexis ten years ago. Invited to share her passion, Au describes a very practical business where both strategy and tactics focused on one objective: 'What's right for the customer?'

Benchmark! Grow faster , Become More Productive
PricewaterhouseCoopers' "Trendsetter Barometer" interviewed CEO's of 407 product and service companies identified in the media as the fastest growing US businesses over the last five years. The surveyed companies ranged in size from approximately five million to 100 million in revenue/sales. The study found that fast growth companies that benchmark grow faster and are more productive than their peers.

Logistics Improvements for SME's
Open almost any business book these days to learn how another major multi-national has transformed itself by adopting new logistics practices. Look carefully and you will often find that major investment has been required in systems to make it all work. Excellence (e.g. Dell's JIT supply chain, General Electric's e-procurement) can carry a high price tag, and a million US dollars may not go very far when buying the enabling technologies. Clearly, few SME's (small and medium-size enterprises) can afford this scale of investment. Moreover, with the price of technology still falling, and global standards yet to emerge, there is a case for "wait and see" for businesses that cannot afford experimental investment. How can SME's use small scale investments to achieve really worthwhile improvements in their logistics operations? This article examines some options.

Letter from the editor

From the HBC