Cost Savings, cost savings, cost savings – if we focus on cost savings at the expense (no pun intended 😊) of what is most important to our “customer” then we Fail. Period. Herein, lies the single biggest difference between Strategic Souring and Category Management – focusing on your…
Those of us that are Supply Chain junkies have heard all the stories about Walmart. Back in the day (and maybe even today) Walmart was notorious for their somewhat aggressive, even brutal Strategic Sourcing tactics. They could and did “make” many Suppliers wealthy AND they could and did…
Preparing a spend analysis, doing supply market research, determining your sourcing strategy, developing / executing a negotiation strategy, writing a contract, putting a new supplier place – these are the basic steps associated with Strategic Sourcing. These steps can be found in any standard sourcing process whether it…
Let’s talk process!!! I assume this is the area where we may have the MOST disagreement. I often hear from clients that Strategic Sourcing and Category Management are interchangeable terms for the same process and I must admit that many, many organizations use them that way. But, we…
All Procurement /Supply Chain organizations can be positioned on a Maturity Model. Some of you are still trying to move from tactical Purchasing to Sourcing while others may be trying to make the leap from Strategic Sourcing to Category Management. Regardless of where you are, the journey to…
