When executed correctly, strategic sourcing — a multi-faceted approach to purchasing contingent on types of goods and services — yields many benefits for both buying companies and their suppliers.

Privacy once meant drawing the drapes. Now that we depend on technology to do the world's business, privacy means securing data, protecting personal information and keeping hackers at bay.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the Obama administration's plan to rescue financial markets yesterday. The plan was long on promise and short on details, however, which sent markets spinning.

The story sounds just like a John Grisham novel: The CEO of a West Virginia energy company spent more than $3 million to help a relative unknown unseat the incumbent and become a judge on the state's Supreme Court.

When times are good, expansion plans, future investments and revenue growth are the focus points in most industries. But during down times, organizations scrutinize spending. The current economic crisis is hitting the health care sector as hard as other industries.

"Victory is contagious, and food always tastes better when you win," says Ray Artigue, the former senior vice president of the Phoenix Suns, who is now a professor of practice in the marketing department at the W. P. Carey School of Business and director of the W. P. Carey MBA

The extreme appreciation that thrilled Phoenix area residents who bought their homes in the period just before the run up is gone — all gone. But the downward slide isn't over yet.

With the economy continuing to falter, consumer product and service companies are looking for every edge to bring in business.

For any shopper who noticed how the price of hamburger and lettuce jumped after gas prices soared last year, this should come as no surprise: Buyers eventually feel the pinch when their suppliers' expenses surge. The reason?

With a working title of "recovery and reinvestment," President-elect Obama's economic stimulus plan aims to "save or create" 3 million jobs by the end of 2010.