Supply Chain Management in the Age of the Customer
Supply chain professionals today are answering to a new authority — the customers on whose satisfaction and loyalty their organizations depend. Economic uncertainty, globalization and unprecedented competition and choice have all combined to turn what was once an inward-looking profession inside out. Angel Mendez, Cisco's head of Customer Value Chain Management, discusses how his global organization has realigned itself for greater focus on customer-driven factors such as new business models, collaborative demand planning and shaping, quality excellence, localization and value service. Drawing on examples of business transformation and customer success, Mendez explains how increased customer focus can transform an organization's supply chain operations into a key differentiator and source of competitive advantage.

Speeding the Recovery: Manufacturing and the Global Supply Chain
As President of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the former Governor of Michigan (three terms) the largest industry trade group in America, John Engler has unique insights into the state of manufacturing. (NAM represents both small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states.) As NAM President, Engler is a leading advocate for the 12 million Americans employed directly in manufacturing, educating the public and policymakers on issues that affect this critical sector of the U.S. economy. He promotes a broad-based agenda for maintaining U.S. competitiveness by lifting unnecessary burdens on manufacturing: excessive taxation and regulation, the high cost of health care, expensive litigation and soaring energy costs. Engler also focuses on competitiveness through innovation, research and development, implementation of information technology, intellectual property rights, visas for skilled foreign workers and education and training. In line with these goals, the NAM chairs the Compete America Coalition, representing more than 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations. Engler served in the Michigan Legislature and graduated from Michigan State University.

Norbert J. Ore, CPSM, C.P.M., chair of the ISM Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; releases the committee's Manufacturing Semiannual Economic Forecast.

Anthony S. Nieves, C.P.M., CFPM, chair of the ISM Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; and senior vice president — supply management, Hilton Worldwide, releases the committee's Non-Manufacturing Semiannual Economic Forecast.

Jason Cummins is a partner and head of economic research at Brevan Howard Asset Management, a hedge fund with US$25 billion under management. Cummins started the U.S. economics shop at BHAM more than five years ago and now runs the 15-person global research/strategy team. Formerly, he was senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board, where he ran the macro-forecasting team. He started his career as an assistant professor of economics at New York University. He has published numerous scholarly articles and consulted for both businesses and governments. Cummins earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree with high honors from Swarthmore College.

Dave Barry is a humor columnist. For 25 years he was a syndicated columnist whose work appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. In 1988, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. Barry has also written a total of 30 books, and two of his books were used as the basis for the CBS TV sitcom Dave's World, in which Harry Anderson played a much taller version of Dave. Barry lives in Miami, Florida, with his wife, Michelle, a sportswriter. He has a son, Rob, and a daughter, Sophie, neither of whom thinks he's funny. No two speeches of Dave Barry's are exactly the same. He brings his hilarious sense of humor to each presentation and offers up his wacky point of view on relationships, work, kids, technology and life in general.