Category Archives: Miscellaneous

The Strategic Sourcing Lifecycle: A Free e-Book for You.

Last fall in our post on how the Trade Extensions Event Was Different, we noted two important things. The first was that the Trade Extensions event was different because, unlike many vendor events, not a single presentation was about their platform — it was all about the customer and the various types of value available to the customer (including a focussed vision, sustainability, and an understanding of how what comes next can generate value). The second was that their message was different. Unlike most vendors which focus on their key capability, their most powerful modules, etc, Trade Extensions only had one thing to say. It’s not optimization. It’s just sourcing.

And SI echoed this point in a series last fall because that’s the truth. It’s just sourcing. And sourcing is not just an RFX, e-Auction, or optimization-backed negotiation. It’s a process. A process that starts with the identification of a need and only ends after the last unit required by the organization has arrived safe and sound and is put to proper use or the last hour of service has been successfully completed.

This process covers the entire product or service lifecycle from the initial planning phase through the traditional sourcing phase (which includes the RFX, e-Auction, Optimization, Negotiation, Contract drafting and award) and the traditional execution phase (which includes performance, relationship, risk, task, and change management) to the analysis phase (which includes a formal review and opportunity assessment before the next opportunity is selected).

This process goes beyond what a typical platform will support, and what a typical vendor will tell you. Especially when the vendor’s platform will not support each and every step that you need to be aware of. But Trade Extensions will tell you (because only educated people can make proper use of a true optimization-backed Sourcing Platform), and to make sure they got it right, they commissioned the doctor to write an e-book that exemplifies the full end-to-end strategic sourcing lifecycle that makes it clear for one and all what it is, what it requires, and what you should keep in mind when looking for a platform to support one or more parts of the cycle. And that e-book has now been made available to anyone who wants it for FREE over on their site. Simply fill out a brief 5-box form and The Strategic Sourcing Lifecycle: A Brief Introduction, a 118 page e-book, can be yours today.

In addition to a detailed definition of each of the four phases (planning, sourcing, execution, and analysis), the e-book also takes you through the evolution of strategic sourcing, Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), the next level of sourcing, complex tenders, and the evolution of strategic sourcing platforms as well as providing you with a detailed sourcing glossary that will define the most common terms and abbreviations. This is essentially a print-book in e-book form as it even includes a full index!

Whereas the most an average vendor will give you is a long white-paper disguised as an e-book, just like the Spend Visibility Guide (still FREE) was the first true e-Book on Spend Visibility and Spend Analysis, this is the first true e-book on the full strategic sourcing lifecycle. Download the The Strategic Sourcing Lifecycle: A Brief Introduction today. It will be worth your time.

Authoritative Damnation 62: Shareholders

You saw this one coming too, didn’t you. Authoritative Damnation 63 was the Board of Directors, your best friend on a rare day and your worst enemy most of the time. But the Board is not some random group of people, they are a specific group of people that are elected by, you guessed it, Shareholders.

Shareholders are a damnation because they, collectively, control the company. Yes the company answers to the CEO and yes the CEO answers to the Board but the Board answers to the shareholders because if they don’t do what the majority of shareholders feel is in the best interest of the company, the Board won’t be around after the next annual general meeting.

Most shareholders are minority shareholders and most are not very active when it comes to day to day affairs, most not even following day to day affairs because, if the company doesn’t perform, they’ll just withdraw their small investment and put it elsewhere or wait for the overall portfolio to balance out. But some are active, very active, to the point of being activist and if they also have a percentage of the company, and the ear of other shareholders that have a percentage of the company (and not a fraction of a percent), they can be trouble. Big trouble. So much trouble that Big Trouble in Little China* looks like a minor inconvenience.

Why? If they decide that your organization is off track, possibly because they perceive that the organization is failing to be as sustainable or responsible as it should be, and they decide they are going to do something about it, they might go all out and bring the wrath of PETA or Greenpeace down upon you.

Or, if a small group of activist shareholders believe that the strategy of only using recycled content and only focussing on buying from EcoCertified suppliers is costing the company too much in terms of increased expenses and decreased marketshare (as it is, in their view, only attractive to yuppies), they might decide to force an AGM and replace the entire Board with those sympathetic to their ear, a Board that will do a 180 on company strategy, which might work, and might not. But either way, Procurement will have to do a 180 as well — find new suppliers, try to get out of iron-clad contracts with current suppliers, and support a new strategy — overnight.

Or, they might elect themselves to the Board and become the latest Board Members from Hell. Are you ready? Probably not … but they are coming for you anyway!

*Why dredge up this blast from the past? Because The Rock is bringing it back.