THE BUSINESS REVIEW FOR PROCUREMENT LEADERS
Although many companies talk about creating partnership relations with key suppliers, the recipe for actually implementing and sustaining them has not been well developed. Often they are founded on some exceptional individuals, helped by fortuitous circumstances.
The authors – two professors at the IMD business school and a consultant in Switzerland – describe a process for developing collaborative customer-supplier relationships: one they have used successfully with several CPOs.
Using the results of face-to-face interviews and a questionnaire, they run a two-day workshop involving 8-10 managers from each company. Apart from getting to know each other better, the aim is to end up with a clear consensus about the problems/issues in the relationship, the potential solutions, a shared vision of the most important improvements needed over the next 6-12 months, and personal commitments to make it happen.
Although an independent third party is an important ingredient, ultimately
it is the CPO will owns the process and has to make the key decisions, such
as choosing which suppliers to work with at this level and who to involve from
their own side.
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