Defining the role of "Head of Supplier Management"

Defining the role “Head of Supplier Management” for your company In almost 20 years helping clients to make Supplier Management successful, we have learnt that it is crucial to get the right person for the head of Supplier Management role, but not only this, equally important is making sure you have set them up for success. Too often we have seen heads of Supplier Management appointed because they have done a good job managing one or two large complex relationships or been good at managing procurement systems and processes so it would seem a good fit to expand their role. In our experience, to make Supplier Management work in an organisation, it needs to be supported by a business change programme which is led by procurement but is not a procurement change programme. So how do you establish the role and the programme for a successful outcome? There are three areas that we recommend getting right: 1) The role description 2) The focus of the role 3) Defining success criteria and metrics The role description We analysed recent job postings for the positions of "Strategic Relationship Management Lead" and "Head of Supplier Relationship Management" and noted common themes across these positions such as: Responsibilities • Develop and implement supplier management strategies aligned with business objectives. • Lead and manage supplier management teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement. • Establish and maintain strong relationships with strategic suppliers, driving collaboration, innovation, and value creation. • Monitor and measure supplier performance against key performance indicators (KPIs). • Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the organization. Continuous Improvement Initiatives: • Drive projects focusing on efficiency and effectiveness. • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate supplier management and improvement initiatives into overall business strategies.

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