Twenty-five years in business! What a perfect point in the chronicle of CAPS Research
to look back at what we have accomplished and to map our plans for the future.
Our organization started with a small but powerful idea shared by Dr. Harold Fearon,
professor of purchasing at Arizona State University, Jerry Baker, the CEO of NAPM
(now ISM), and John Kraft, the dean of the business school at Arizona State University.
In the beginning, CAPS Research had only a few supporting companies — but we had
high hopes and big dreams, and we persevered.
With that hopeful start in 1986, CAPS Research was on its way to becoming a premier
research organization. Why? CAPS Research believed that supply management executives
could greatly improve an organization's performance if they had credible and practical
research results to help guide and support their decisions. That belief continues
to be our most compelling story. It continues to direct our research activities,
and today, as companies are searching for new strategies, best practices, and trustworthy
benchmarking to help guide them through lean times, the work of CAPS Research is
even more valuable.
New strategies and best practices that make a difference are evident in the focus
studies we published in the past year. Supplier Relationship Management: An Implementation
Framework and Innovation Sourcing: Contributing to Company Competitiveness both
detail what companies can do to improve performance in these critical areas. Recently
we launched a new project, Value Chain Strategies for a Changing Decade, that will
examine the defining strategies in supply management for the years ahead. We will
publish the results from this important project in installments, so that the new
ideas and insights reach our audience in a timely fashion.
Just two years after CAPS Research began, benchmarking was added to the portfolio,
with a report on the petroleum industry. Since then our benchmarking has become
the "gold standard" for data. This past year, we completed more than 30 benchmarking
reports, including cross-industry metrics, industry-specific reports, and SnapShots
Reports, a new product that delivers fast insights to time-sensitive issues. Recently,
we partnered with the Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance
on sustainability metrics for the utility supply base. We believe that the resulting
metrics on supplier performance are applicable across many industries, and we are
working to extend their application.
In April we formally celebrated our silver anniversary at our 22nd Annual Executive
Roundtable, with presentations from invited guests and senior executives on the
current challenges of the global economy. CAPS Research continues its own global
activity, especially in China and Europe. In June, we returned to Shanghai for the
14th Annual Asian Executive Roundtable to explore supply strategies in China and
the greater Asia region. Our first Asian Executive Summit was held in December,
jointly sponsored by Fudan University in Shanghai. This conference was targeted
to Chinese companies, was conducted entirely in Mandarin, and helped bring the message
of modern supply management to many Chinese suppliers of international firms. We
also continue our research activities in Europe, with solid support from the 20
percent of our corporate sponsors who are headquartered there.
None of our accomplishments of the past 25 years would have been possible without
our corporate sponsors and I thank them for their support through the years. Without
them we would have remained only a good idea. And for their steady guidance this
past quarter-century, I thank all of the supply executives who have served on our
Board of Trustees. Special thanks goes to Tim Fiore, current Chair of the Board,
who gives generously of his time to CAPS and who is a trusted and astute advisor
to this grateful Executive Director.
On to the next 25 years!
Regards,
Phil Carter
Executive Director
Source: CAPS Research Annual Report 2011