(Paul Teague — Procurement Leaders)

Procurement executives and other business leaders should be monitoring infrastructure improvements as a matter of business due diligence.

But, procurement’s role in logistics extends to more than just the condition of ports. It also touches on the important-if-unglamorous issue of trade compliance. Essentially, the term trade compliance relates to activities that ensure companies have all the proper trade licenses in place for global trade. Knowing you have the licenses and understanding the subtleties of free-trade zones and the myriad regulations affecting global shipments is critical. That knowledge is essential for risk management.

A lot of companies struggle with trade compliance. Not so Tyco International. It used to, but Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Operational Excellence Jaime Bohnke and her team reorganized the system for overseeing trade compliance and in the process took the risk out of it. “We didn’t have a one-company approach,” she says. Now they do.

Bohnke and other leading procurement executives take logistics and the related issues around global shipments seriously. In that sense, as in other areas, they are role models for the rest of the profession. Read the complete article here.