British Airway's purchasing chief Paul Alexander made insightful comments on how they view supplier relationship management at SRM2008 in January.

In his view, the massive growth in India and China has resulted in a situation of global scarcity where buyers must now compete with each other for critical supplies.

Further, the relative power of suppliers has increased.

Accordingly, buyers must now look for competitive advantage in sourcing  - and that includes putting in place measures to encourage your suppliers to view you as their 'customer of choice'.

Alexander cites examples of BA efforts, including:

* A focus on building a union with suppliers

* Employing simple but effective gestures, such as thank-you letters

* Avoiding an approach to play suppliers off against each other

* Rethinking their approach to supplier relationship management (SRM)

Source: Supplymanagement.com, 14 Feb 2008

Author: Derek Groom (Decideware)