Producer Price Index Sept 09

20 10 2009

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September 2009 Producer Price Index report.  The PPI dropped a little this month mostly due to cost of gas declines (0.6% decline).  In August we saw a significant increase at 1.7% raises a little alarm in that the fluctuations are evident.  The fact that most of this is based on energy prices swinging is both a little calming and potential for more signs that oil prices are moving too much.

“Wholesale prices in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in September on lower fuel costs, a sign inflation remains muted and the Federal Reserve has leeway to keep borrowing costs low as the economy recovers.”  Bloomberg

What does this mean to me: we will probably not see much increase in prices over the coming months (keep watching the price of oil/gas).  This is also a sign that while some of the recent indicators have been good, we might see a lull in the recovery process.

As a part of this series, I am also going to add the price of oil.  It was not one of the Baumohl Indicators, but I think that might have been because it comes out of the financial markets.

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Categories : Analytics, Environmental Scan, KPI, Performance Management

External & Market Indicators

25 02 2009

One item most organizations struggle with is leveraging external indicators. Early last year, the price of gas created a chain reaction. Most companies cost of goods sold increased to where they were forced to raise their prices as their margins eroded.  

Even if we do that, we typically do not have a systematic way to incorporate the learning into a business process. What we would need is the ability to understand the external indicators, know of potential sources for the information, and work these into ongoing environmental scans.  

What is the value of understanding how the consumer price index impacts your revenues? What happens if you were able to move before your customer in terms of supply chain interruption? In some cases, this could mean millions to your top or bottom line. There are a number of organizations that knew the market was struggling in 2008, but did nothing to prepare.  And a number of those names will never be the same (GM, AIG, Circuit City, etc).

When is the last time you did a formal environmental scan, discussed the results, and put new actions into place?


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Categories : Analytics & Business Intelligence, Environmental Scan, KPI, Operational Performance Management, Scorecard & Dashboard, Strategy Management