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Category Archives: Supplier Management
Taxing times for relationship managers
Yesterday, as usual, I woke up to the sound of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme and a report on the apparent infiltration of tax consultants from the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms into HM’s Treasury department. These consultants were on short-term placement … Continue reading
Eating the elephant – process analysis in organisation change
Guest blogger, David Kemp, recently Vice President-Supply Chain at the Engine Control and Electrical Systems division of Goodrich Corporation, continues his theme on organisational change. When I wrote here in January about how to design a successful organisation, I set … Continue reading
Power: A Place in Education and Training?
In this fourth and final blog in a series on power in buyer-supplier relationships from Chris Lonsdale, he argues that it would be a mistake to simply dismiss ‘power’ as ‘bad practice’, and proposes that teaching managers about power is about preparing them … Continue reading
The Use of Power in Supply Markets
In this third in a series of blogs from Chris Lonsdale on the concept of power in buyer-supplier relationships, he asserts that a dominant power position in a business relationship is just that, a position. It doesn’t have to be aggressively … Continue reading
Buyer-Supplier Power: Concept Not Practice
In this second in a series of blogs from Chris Lonsdale on the concept of power in buyer-supplier relationships, he cautions practitioners not to confuse the concept of power with the lazy assumption that it determines how relationships should be managed … Continue reading
Revisiting Buyer-Supplier Power
The current horse meat scandal is one of those regular events in British life that confirms the prejudices of all manner of people. The usual suspects have (inevitably) seen this as the latest reason to bash the EU. Other usual … Continue reading
Posted in Customer Management, Key Account Management, Procurement, Relationship Transformation, Sales Excellence, Selling to Procurement, SRM, Strategic Negotiation, Supplier Management
Tagged KAM, Key Account Management, Negotiation, Procurement, Sales, Sales Effectiveness, SAM, SRM, Strategic Account Management, Supplier Performance Management, Supplier Relationship Management, Supply Management
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Passion is never enough: we need intention most of all
At one of the more recent Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) annual conferences, Ellis Watson, a veteran CEO with an impressive CV, called for procurement practitioners to display passion in everything they do. Step-up and take your message out to … Continue reading
Posted in Leadership & Personal Mastery, Procurement
Tagged CIPS, Leadership, Personal Mastery, Procurement
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Procurement: should you separate operational and strategic buyers?
I was recently involved in an exchange on the subject of a reorganisation of Procurement at a service-industry client. Being proposed was that the role of the buyer would be split into two: an operational buyer responsible for managing the … Continue reading
Time for a Change – designing a successful organisation
Four Pillars is happy to welcome new guest blogger, David Kemp, recently Vice President-Supply Chain at the Engine Control and Electrical Systems division of Goodrich Corporation, a former Fortune500 aerospace and defence contractor. David has always been passionate about organisation … Continue reading
Posted in Change Management, Procurement
Tagged Change Management, Organisation Development
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To change systems, change minds
I recently picked up and reviewed, for a second time, a survey of companies operating in Western Europe, carried out by Capgemini and the Economist Intelligence Unit. In it, 86 per cent of … Continue reading
