CASE STUDY CO-OP
THE CURRICULUM OFFERS THE RIGHT BLEND OF TECHNICAL, BEHAVIOURAL AND COLLABORATIVE SKILLS TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE SUPPLIERS AND MEET BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.
The Co-op Group is working suppliers harder, encouraging them to bringmore innovation to their services. One example comes from joint work between the Co-op Group andMicrosoft, which resulted in the retailer building a store in the software giant’s UK campus in Reading
suppliers why they were brought in, where they could add value and what the potential reward might be. If the suppliers were able to work in partnership and help define a service that was more beneficial to the Co-op, then the eventual reward would be greater,” Batey says. In addition she says, the Co-op Group is working suppliers harder, encouraging them to bring more innovation to their services. One example comes from joint work between the Co-op Group and Microsoft, which resulted in the retailer building a store in the software giant’s UK campus in Reading. For Microsoft, it was able to showcase its latest artificial intelligence technology in a real store, with an ethical partner. Meanwhile, the Co-op Group gained access to the latest advances in retail technology. In August 2015, the Co-op Group appointed a new CPO, Fabienne Lesbros, who is a strong advocate of SRM. She has created a procurement academy, which is taking the foundation work around SRM and SRM training and applying it to other areas of the business, Batey says. Among consumers, the Co-op Group believes it is well positioned to take advantage of the trend towards ethical trading. With training helping to create a consistent approach to SRM, it is leveraging this reputation to increase the value suppliers provide.
“The courses were led by a State of Flux practitioner. We did not want computer- based training. We wanted it to be face- to-face, not just sat at a screen. That way, people can have a conversation and talk through the issues. It made sense because the main purpose of the courses was that we all came out speaking the same language,” Batey says. TACKLING CONTRACT LEAKAGE The benefits to the Co-op Group were three- fold, she adds. Firstly, greater awareness of best practice in SRM would help protect brand value; it would help assure suppliers were up to the Co-op Group’s standards of ethics. Secondly, contract leakage: around 9% of contract value is lost during the delivery phase. It was the desire to ensure suppliers were kept on track and the Co-op Group leveraged its brand value whenever possible. The last benefit was to raise the capability of the individuals working in supplier management to show the Co-op Group is investing in employees and help attract the best talent to the organisation in the future. An example of how the IT team applied the training comes from a project to transform IT services and support. The Co-op Group had intended to issue around seven RFIs for the service. However, following the SRM course, it decided to invite the leading suppliers in the field to a thought-leadership morning. The IT SRM team explained to the
were engaging suppliers, but described the activity in different ways. The IT team approached other departments which had already developed some kind of supply management strategy to see if they were interested in contributing to, and taking part in a company SRM training programme. General insurance, IT and capital projects expressed an interest. The team approached the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM), a professional certification organisation, to develop a skill matrix that everybody could work to. From September 2016, State of Flux delivered the training as part of its partnership with the IACCM. It took 16 people through practitioner training, 16 through advanced SRM training, two people through the contract and commercial training and 22 through the fundamental training, Batey says. REAL SUPPLIER CASE STUDIES “The courses were challenging but in a thought-provoking way. In the advanced practitioner training, for example, we focused on organisations we were already working with to form the content for the course. We could immediately apply the training to the suppliers we knew. All of a sudden we were putting structure around risk registers and KPIs. We were looking at levers and how to use them to add value. We were thinking what mini-business cases might look like with real suppliers,” she says.
The IACCM and State of Flux accredited supplier relationship management programme supports the journey to individual and organisational excellence in SRM.
Get in touch to find out more about the SRM certification programme or for help with organisation design and competency assessment.
THE SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT LEARNING AND CERTIFICATION PROGRAMME
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66 CASE STUDY STATE OF FLUX
2017 GLOBAL SRMRESEARCHREPORT
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