Procurement Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge Increases By Sharing But Not By Saving
Multi-year contracts: What’s in it for procurement?
When you are involved in an RFP process to fulfill a specific business need, one of the most critical factors while negotiating agreements with shortlisted suppliers is the duration of the contract. The business could be awarded for one year or for multiple years. While there is the obvious benefit
How To “Be Presidential” In Procurement !!!
Certain professionals are expected to adhere to higher standards for behavior: doctors, accountants, and country presidents are a few that come to mind. Procurement professionals should also “be presidential” in their behavior. Over the past year, there has been a lot of conversation and debate about what presidential behavior is.
Attracting and retaining procurement talent !!!
Recruiting, developing and keeping the very best talent in your function is no easy task. To clarify your thinking around the issue, there are a few questions you should be asking yourself to get where you want to be. 1. Who are you?It’s natural to take pride in your company’s
The hidden talents within your procurement team !!!
Talent is one topic that is always on the radar of CPOs (chief procurement officer). Sometimes procurement chiefs discuss a ‘shortage of talent’, which can refer to a lack of appropriately qualified candidates for open positions or headcount shortages. Other times, they talk of a ‘talent mismatch’ between the people
E-Sourcing: Finding The Right Solution for Small & Medium-Sized Businesses !!!
When it comes to running competitive events and soliciting suppliers, electronic sourcing (e-sourcing) tools can be a procurement professional’s best friend. With so many e-sourcing tools on the market, selecting the right tool can be a challenge and requires a firm definition of what your company is looking to get
How Much Negotiation Mercy Should You Give To Spineless Suppliers?
In today’s business world, there’s a desire to have your good suppliers stay in business. This desire often tempers how aggressive procurement professionals are when negotiating with certain suppliers. Most suppliers could remain solvent even if they anointed your organization the one customer they no longer charge. But some suppliers’
6 Ways to sharpen your every day Negotiation Skills !!!
People are often surprised, and a little intimidated, when they learn that my research expertise is in negotiations. They remark, “but you are so personable … transparent… straightforward.” And I think, “It’s too bad that’s a surprise. . .” This is probably because most people think of negotiators, and by
How Procurement Can Go “Back To School”
Ah, after summer breaks. It’s that glorious time when kids go back to school. Time for them to refocus on improving skills related to the “three R’s” of education: Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic. It might also be a good time to pay attention to the reading, writing, and arithmetic involved
How can procurement become more desirable to Generation Y?
By 2020, millennials, or Generation Y, will make up over half of the global workforce. Attracting the best and brightest of this group is key to procurement’s future success, yet many of this generation still don’t know what procurement is or what it does, making it more challenging to bring
Selling the story of procurement – Tips for reporting purchase activities !!!
One thing procurement has often struggled with is selling itself to the rest of the business. While the temptation is to focus on facts and figures that demonstrate value, perhaps it may be better to take a more creative approach. Marketing teams have tended to use stories rather than statistics
Applying game theory to procurement’s negotiations !!!
Negotiations can be a fraught process. Both supplier and buyer tend to look for an advantage over the other. In truth, both should be looking to see if they can win together. To achieve this, procurement is increasingly looking towards different theories, most notably ‘Game theory’. In order to work,
How collaboration can lead to innovation !!!
While the word innovation means different things to different organizations, companies are unanimous in agreement that, today, innovation needs to become the bedrock of the business – whether it’s a new piece of technology, a more efficient way of doing things, or simply a new approach that tackles an age-old
How to build successful supplier relationships
22% of CPOs intend to direct more resources towards supplier relationship management (SRM) in 2017, according to Procurement Leaders’ most recent Trend Report, highlighting the importance that CPOs are placing on improving the relationships their functions have with suppliers. A fully engaged supply base is vital to a procurement function.
Winning negotiation techniques
A good negotiator needs not just a repertoire of strategies, tactics and techniques, but also the experience to know when and how to deploy them. One strategy – the concession strategy – lies at the heart of every negotiation as it determines how you can manage the way a negotiation
Four reasons why procurement cannot afford to ignore vendor management…
As a procurement leader, it is important to ask the following questions: What do I know about our suppliers? What should I know that I don’t? Most businesses can tell you anything you want to know about their cust omers. Not only do companies know who their customers are, organisations