taking costs out? Are you and your suppliers collaboratively
Supplier management has never been higher on the executive agenda. Now is the time to engage and gain support for developing and maintaining a leading supplier management programme.
The linkages are clear when addressing the challenges of obtaining and maintaining engagement. The number one challenge in obtaining senior stakeholder engagement is their prioritisation of other business needs. This is hardly surprising given that feedback suggests they remain unaware of the value proposition and business case for supplier management, which will also have a knock-on impact when addressing internal procurement colleagues’ time and resource capacity issues. Communication with suppliers, especially critical and strategic suppliers, is vital and remains a challenge. Too many companies rely on ad hoc and informal conversations and, therefore, never have any empirical data about how they are regarded as a customer. Where a 360-degree feedback approach is used, it can be problematic to facilitate these internally, especially in the early days of the relationship or when there are problems to address. Until the relationship is in a position of mutual trust, it can be helpful to use an independent third party to facilitate the process. The topic of supplier feedback can be problematic in that the gathering of the feedback is actually the easy part. Whether
employing a 360-degree feedback approach or a one-way questionnaire, information that needs to be acted on will be gathered. In too many cases, gathering feedback can be seen as a token gesture, leading to a deterioration in relationships. The key engagement opportunities are: • Build on supplier management’s higher profile by engaging more with senior executives and raising their awareness of its value proposition related to their business challenges. • Create headroom in the average procurement day for more time on supplier management by maximising the use of technology to automate and enable best practice. • Ensure that all suppliers, particularly critical and strategic, are engaged in a structured and organised way and utilise the business to increase engagement. • Ensure that supplier feedback is properly analysed and acted on. • Investigate outsourcing or partnering with State of Flux for Supplier Management as a managed service
Talk to us about how supplier management techniques can take costs out, reduce risk and harness innovation. Schedule a meeting.
Communication with suppliers, especially critical and strategic suppliers, is vital and remains a challenge.
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