Only a couple weeks ago,  as I was looking at my calendar to schedule yet another meeting I realized that it was December! While I have looked at that same calendar a thousand times throughout the year, it never really sank in until that moment how fast 2012 has gone. Being heads down in project after project at work, while balancing getting the kids to every soccer practice and dance lesson on time at home, it becomes very easy to fall into a day to day routine of simply getting the next task done.

In the roughly 10 months I’ve helped my buddy Buzz out with his daily ‘Supply Chain Buzz’ for the EC-BP.com site, I figure I’ve read close to 1000 stories, blogs, and articles on supply chain, ERP, ecommerce, and general management topics. Since this is the time of year that the ‘Big News of 2012’ and ‘Predictions for 2013’ stories abound, I thought I’d put together my own list with a little different spin. It’s more along the lines of ‘Biggest Topics With Staying Power That Have and Will Continue to Affect Supply Chains ‘. Here we go……

Everyone reading this is a capable, smart, and skilled project manager, who is proud of managing the key stakeholder in each project with professionalism and finesse.  Do you bring this same care to managing the stakeholder in your personal life? Can you imagine how much smoother things would be if you did? Who are the important stakeholders in the project called “life”? Take a moment to think about that, as this is an important question.