Press Reports
The Networker
The consultant Gerd Kerkhoff from Büderich started up a network of 40 business people for the politician Sigmar Gabriel, chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In his private life, Gerd Kerkhoff also appreciates networks...
Industrial Buying at New Terms
The editors of Managementbuch.de distinguished Gerd Kerkhoff's book Einkaufsagenda 2020 as 'recommended reading'.
Buying R&D services – allowing to produce innovations
Some companies already use external suppliers and allow innovations to "produce". A current challenge for purchasing which changes the purchasing organization and which is increasingly discussed in business management and in...
Harmonization of purchasing in M&A processes
How companies optimally integrate their most important cost leverage.
China - Bye-Bye Low Wages
China's blue-collar and office workers are getting rebellious and demand more money – successfully. Gerald Boess, the partner responsible for Asia at Kerkhoff Consulting: "Medium-sized companies buying in China should be looking...
Rescue case G. (for Germany)
State finances. Experts say that Berlin's savings and economy package is much too small. Germany needs a forward strategy. What politics can learn from the economy.
Kerkhoff Consults Head of SPD Gabriel (chairman of the Social Democratic Party in Germany)
Gerd Kerkhoff is not only founder and general manager of the Düsseldorf-based consultancy Kerkhoff Consulting, but he is also the initiator of a circle of 40 people from the management boards of major German corporate groups and...
Two-tier society in furniture industry
Study on purchasing and procurement: Medium-sized companies ignore fundamental market changes
Cost-Efficient Purchasing Policy
Reducing working capital and freeing up liquidity.
Price isn't everything
Industrial buyers can't be taken advantage of when they are using an analysis software and thus know a supplier's production costs in all details. Sellers themselves frequently don’t' even have exact production costs at their...
Ideas Of Others
Research and development (R & D) are vitally important – especially in the economic crisis. But is it necessary for every company to do its own R & D? No. For medium-sized businesses particularly, it might be worth buying such...
Campus Symposium - Sustainability: Crucial Topic In All Sectors
Panel discussions during the event combine different views
New Approaches
WirtschaftsWoche determined the best consulting specialists for medium-sized companies in five different disciplines. What problems the consultants were faced with at their clients; how they set up their projects, and the results...
German Furniture Industry: Purchasing Makes Yield Go Down the Drain
Crucially changing global framework conditions present threatening challenges for the German furniture industry. In this respect, procurement is actually particularly important due to its considerable effect on business operating...
"Optimization of Purchasing and Production"
Many consultancies have specialized: Kerkhoff in purchasing; Prolean in production. Now, these two will go together. In a talk with Beschaffung aktuell, the two managing directors Gerd Kerkhoff and Bodo Wiegand explained this...
Gerd Kerkhoff in the German Speakers' Dictionary
From now on, an entry for Gerd Kerkhoff can be found in the German Rednerlexikon (Speakers' Dictionary).
Caution with Labels
Jens Hornstein, Head of the Competence Team Sustainability at Kerkhoff Consulting in Düsseldorf, recommends to scrutinize labels and seals.
Companies Obtain Tips for Purchasing
Procurement experts are considered to provide fast success – the industry segment is growing at double digit rates.
New restructuring consultancy relies on operative excellence
Restructuring consultancies frequently rely on strategic consulting – and thus solve only one side of the problem. That's why a consultancy for restructuring, named lore-ley, has been founded in Düsseldorf which particularly...
The need to catch up in terms of sustainability
For 41 % of those responsible for purchasing and procurement in the producing industry, ecological standards still play no part in purchasing; and for one quarter of them, social standards are still no important subject in...
Buyers Are Losing Track
In many companies, secretaries and production managers just order what they need. And their bosses pay.
Telecommunication Services: Cost Drivers in Many Companies
Collaboration between Purchasing and IT increases the economic efficiency of the subscribed services.
Clever Supplier Management
Every cent saved in purchasing is directly reflected as profit in the annual profit and loss account. That's why it's necessary to review processes and establish a clear strategy.
Kerkhoff Consulting: "Hidden Champion" Of Purchasing Consultants
The total amount sounds impressive: Round about three billion euros – that's what consultants from Kerkhoff Consulting helped their clients save through clever purchasing in the course of the year. Cost reducers are in great...
"As a Private Person, I Find Haggling Silly"
Talking with businesspeople: Gerd Kerkhoff is considered a pioneer in purchasing consultancy in Germany.
Emergency plans as a protection against supply failures
Assembly lines need not stand still when suppliers go bankrupt. Yet all too often, company managers will be slipshod in their preparation of such an emergency.
Study on Sustainable Procurement
Changing customer demands are forcing companies to also take into account the topics of ecology and social standards in company procurement.
Supply Chain: Sustainability in purchasing gains ever more importance
In the future, purchasing will no longer be oriented on short-term demand but will also include the subject of sustainability in its decisions.
Book Review: Einkaufsagenda 2020
Beschaffung Aktuell presents the current book by Gerd Kerkhoff and his team
Advantages due to sustainable procurement
In a current study by the Kerkhoff Competence Center of Supply Chain Management (KCC) at the University of St. Gallen and the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach, 34 percent of 202 interviewed companies declared that compliance...
Presenting the Hidden Champions in the Consultancy Sector
Gerd Kerkhoff about Kerkhoff Consulting GmbH
Afraid of offenses
Every fourth small or medium-sized company in Germany is confronted with suppliers using child labor.
Clean purchasing will strengthen customer confidence
A compliance system provides transparency and reduces costs over the long run
Purchasing is turning into a control function
Supply chains are no longer being screened only for cost drivers but especially for their innovation potential.
KCC Study: Sustainability is a trend and it pays off
Düsseldorf/St. Gallen/Vienna. Ecology and sustainability are increasingly more important factors in the economy. Thus, of the 202 companies interviewed in a current study by the Kerkhoff Competence Center of Supply Chain...
Clean, Clean
Sustainable procurement: It might turn out to be expensive if purchasing is reduced to only making (price) cuts in red ink. If a supplier's work is not scrutinized to see whether it's environmentally and socially compatible, a...
Suddenly Boss
The role of boss may be a burden. Here you'll learn to handle the responsibility.
Sandwiched
Between commerce, changed consumer demands and suppliers' oligopolies: Exclusive study about the "Strategic Challenges for Purchasing in the Food Industry".
Industry Not Yet Meeting Trends Adequately
Significantly increasing energy prices, developing oligopolies among suppliers, and ever more individualized consumer demands – those are the three biggest challenges for purchasing departments of companies in the food industry....
Top-Level Matter of Purchasing: Five Steps on the Way to Success
Delivery services are buzzing and become ever more popular. Gerd Kerkhoff, Managing Director of Kerkhoff Consulting, Düsseldorf, here provides tips on how bills for these services can be lowered.
Center of Value Added
Purchasing and procurement are central management functions today. It's no longer merely a matter of tough haggling with suppliers. An analysis by Gerd Kerkhoff, purchasing consultant.
Project Report Purchasing
On October 6, 2009, the time had come: The Purchasing Project was concluded after 1,132 days. Within the scope of the last session of the Project Steering Committee, chaired by our First Landesrätin (State Official) Ms. Hötte,...
Purchasing Agenda 2020
Purchasing and procurement are central management functions today. Companies realized at the latest due to the economic and financial crisis which started in 2007 that the supply chain plays a preeminent role in reaching...
Four Megatrends in Purchasing
Business consultant and bestseller author Gerd Kerkhoff describes what procurement will look like in the future
Where Smaller Consultancies Leave Big Ones Behind
Small and medium-sized enterprises often feel misunderstood by large consultancies. They will find good, economical alternatives in specialized and medium-sized firms.
Climate
According to a survey by Kerkhoff Consulting in August 2009, still 61% of the purchase managers considered "green procurement" as a buzzword and thus fail to see a future trend which can no longer be stopped.
Supply Chain Going Green
Transport service providers no longer want to be considered the bad guys in environmental pollution. They are increasingly banking on green service. The environment profits from it and sometimes the customer as well.
Future Buyers Need More Know-How
What to do when an important supplier goes bankrupt? How can I save costs in Purchasing? Which innovative products are offered by suppliers, and how can I use them to improve my own products?
Financing problem can be jointly solved in the supply chain
In the crisis, customers and suppliers move closer together. Both sides can profit from it. Planning safety is one plus point.
