2017 Global SRM Research Report - Solving the value Puzzle

THECO-OP INTRAININGFOR ETHICAL SRM

CASE STUDY CO-OP

Investment in training is creating a common language for managing supplier relationships in the Co-op Group. But the move did not start from within procurement.

To take themodel further and apply it to suppliers outside IT, the team felt it needed a common language for SRM. Many organisations across the groupwere engaging suppliers, but described the activity in different ways

In May 2016, the Co-op Group announced plans to take 70,000 members of staff through a ‘Back to being Co-op’ training programme. The member-owned group, which can trace its roots back to 1844, wanted to help educate colleagues about the benefits of membership and reconnect themwith its heritage. But it was not only staff who attended the education programme. In an entrepreneurial move, the IT supplier management team suggested some of its vendors also attend, as part of a plan to help bring them in line with the core values of the Co-op Group, an organisation with businesses covering insurance, legal services and undertaking, as well as retail. The move to take suppliers through the organisation’s values training was a way to help ensure the Co-op Group is not putting its reputation at risk by working with partners who do not understand its approach to ethics. It attracted interest from outside IT, says Alexis Batey, the group’s IT Supplier Relationship Manager. “It got us a lot of attention from the executive team. We were trying to say, ‘Let’s look at suppliers in a different way, not just as commodities, but as organisations that can add true value to the Co-op.’”

Batey had been leading an SRM programme in IT for a couple of years and saw how the Co-op Group’s image could be better used to its advantage. “The Co-op has a significant brand reputation which we can leverage and we do not do so always do so. One of my ambitions is to make IT at the Co-op the most ethical IT in the world; I cannot do that unless we have partners who are prepared to add value at every stage,” she says. DEVELOPING A COMMON LANGUAGE FOR SRM As part of this programme of work to improve SRM, the IT team helped introduce training for individuals from across business units whose roles in some way involved supplier management. The work started in 2014 when the IT team took part in a group- wide review of contracts after the upheaval that followed the financial crisis. As the audit continued, IT was highlighted for its maturity in contract management. It worked on hygiene factors with IT suppliers, creating a framework and a segmentation model, Batey says. However, to take the model further and apply it to suppliers outside IT, the team felt it needed a common language for SRM. Many organisations across the group

CASE STUDY STATE OF FLUX 2017 GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT