7 Questions you Must Answer Before Starting Collaborative Supplier Engagements
It’s now more important than ever for businesses to rethink their commercial engagements especially when it comes to the role that supplier collaboration will play in the future success of our...
View ArticleWhich Suppliers Should You Collaborate With?
Clearly, establishing collaborative commercial relationships with all of our your suppliers is neither beneficial nor is it sustainable. So how do we go about picking the correct suppliers to undertake...
View ArticleThe 3 Factors Critical for Success In Supplier Relationships
Relationships are difficult. Whether it’s a marriage, the relationship between a star athlete and coach or a supplier relationship, opinions and objectives will differ and conflict will likely exist....
View ArticleGetting to We – 5 Steps to Highly Collaborative Relationships
It has become clear to us as a business that while many companies and their leaders talk a great game when it comes to innovation, supplier collaboration and of course value creation, most have no idea...
View ArticleInnovation – What is the Wheeled Suitcase of your Industry?
Humans have travelled for ever, we always will. Whether it’s to find to food, a more exotic husband or wife, to expand the empire or to get drunk for a friends stag or hen party, we’ll continue to pack...
View ArticleSRM is Dead Long Live ROR
SRM is Dead Long Live Return On Relationships, here is why we simply must bin the term SRM. Why, you ask, do I want to do away with the term SRM (supplier relationship management)? For one clear reason...
View ArticleIs Anchoring Wrecking the Way you Negotiate?
I’ve got a question… Is the population of Myanmar greater or less than than 17 million? Without using google, I want you to decide which option you think is correct. Once you’ve decided, I want you to...
View ArticleIrrelevant: Indirect and Direct Procurement Classifications
I dislike the ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ spend classifications we use in procurement. I’ve written about this before here, but it came up again last week when talking to a non-procurement colleague...
View ArticleCPO: I’ll play with the CEO and CFO but not the others.
Yesterday I found myself thumbing through Deloitte’s 2016 CPO Survey. It’s been out for a few months now, but you can still download a copy here if you’re so inclined. Perhaps not surprisingly, the...
View ArticleLive From Procurement Leaders World Congress 2016.
How much value have you created in the last year? Its that time of year again where we brush off our dusty black ties and ready our-self for the upcoming World Procurement Awards. The champagne is on...
View ArticleWithout Supplier Innovation Tesla Would Have Built a Camry
I’ve never been into cars, my current ride (a 2004 Fiat Panda) will attest to that, but I am into Tesla. New business models, new tech, gutsy growth predictions, disrupting an archaic industry, moving...
View ArticleSupplier Innovation: Ford and GM and Nissan Leave $2B in Profit on the Table
When it comes to supplier enabled innovation, the auto industry just keeps giving. Last week I wrote about how without supplier innovation Tesla would likely have built another Camry. Today I came...
View ArticleThe 5 Reasons Your SRM Program Failed
There is huge untapped potential in our supplier relationships. From delivering new product ideas all the way through to managing risk. A close and collaborative relationship with critical suppliers is...
View ArticleNew Research – Governance in Collaborative Supplier Relationships.
For some time now Old Street Labs has been discussing the importance of procurement teams reimagining their commercial relationships. We believe that to unlock the value, innovation and to better...
View ArticleGovernance in Supplier Relationships – Because Doing What you Said You’d Do...
Earlier this year our co-founder Alex Short argued that SRM is dead. He highlighted that the unidirectional ‘management’ of suppliers that has taken place within traditional SRM practices simply...
View ArticleThe Statement of Intent – Your Ticket To Successful Supplier Engagements
Whether it’s Leicester City’s triumph in this year’s Premier League, the Cleveland Cavaliers come from behind victory in the recent NBA finals or your own procurement team, great teams all have one...
View ArticleBrexit Decisions Day – How is Procurement Reacting?
Today Britain votes on it’s future in the EU. The BBC open its article on vote day by discussing the weather and it’s impact on voter turnout which I thought was a rather British thing to do. A simple...
View ArticleSupplier Relationships Need To Be Treated Like Babies Not Adults
Peter Drucker once said, “Innovative efforts should never report to line managers charged with responsibility for ongoing operations. The new project is an infant and will remain one for the...
View ArticleHow to Resolve Issues in Supplier Relationships.
Let’s be realistic for a moment, issues will exist in every relationship you enter into. Whether it’s a marriage or a commercial relationship, partnerships create expectations and unfulfilled...
View ArticlePodcast – Uncovering Value in the Procurement Function
Old St Labs recently took part in the Art of Procurement Podcast. Our discussion with Philip, the proprietor of Art of Procurement, was initiated when Old St Labs founder Mark Perera shared a slide...
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