This is part 3 in the series of key points that I picked up on at the eyeforprocurement 2nd Supplier Management Conference at the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

CPO vs Buyer

A third area of discussion was from the supplier perspective, about whether noble ideas for strategic supplier relationships that the CPO desires could be at odds with the behavior of Buyers operating "at the coal face".

To expand, Buyers working at operational levels are typically using leverage techniques to force down costs, sometimes in competition with other desired outcomes, such as improved quality.

It is possible for Suppliers to receive mixed messages from Buying organizations lacking a supplier management technique which clarifies each suppliers' performance objectives with a meaningful and well constructed scorecard, which allows all the key people working on the business to contribute to the performance evaluation process.

We were invited to think carefully about the alignment of scorecards developed to support the business objectives of the relatively few, high value suppliers and how that needs to be managed very differently to the relationships with the much larger group of transactionally focussed suppliers.

Conference Summary

All in all it was a terrific conference for professionals interested in techniques and tools to manage high value strategic suppliers. All the speakers were on message and there was plenty of time for discussion and networking. I will be sure to attend next years conference!!!

Author: Richard Benyon (Decideware)