The Point

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

-- Henry Ford

This week’s featured webinar was hosted by Kinaxis and brought us perspectives on the evolving modern supply chain from Lora Cecere, founder of Supply Chain Insights, a research, speaking, advisory, and training firm focused on making supply chain leaders and their teams more effective. Lora spent nine years as an industry analyst with Gartner Group, AMR Research, Altimeter Group and is now the founder of her own firm.  Prior to becoming a supply chain analyst, she spent fifteen years as a leader in the building of supply chain software and twenty years as a supply chain practitioner at Procter & Gamble, Kraft/General Foods, Clorox, and Dreyers Grand Ice Cream.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold more than 25 million copies in 38 languages worldwide, and the audio version has sold 1.5 million copies, and remains one of the best selling nonfiction business books.

The approach continues to be pertinent in every day life at work and at home. Buyers Meeting Point will be reviewing each of the Seven Habits over the next few months.

Have you ever hosted a party and been concerned about running out of refreshments? I worry about it almost every time, especially around major holidays or celebrations such as graduation parties or anniversaries. I do a great deal of planning and preparation. Most always, there is plenty for everyone and lots of leftovers for the next several days.

If you watched Peter Faulk play the character Lieutenant Columbo in the thirty years ‘Columbo’ was on television, you undoubtedly saw him break a case by turning back at the last moment and asking, “Just one more thing…”, a question which always ended up breaking the case.

Maybe procurement need to stop and ask another question or two as well. In a recent blog post, ‘What Questions Should Your Clients be Asking’, sales blogger S. Anthony Iannarino talked about the challenges sales people face when they are not able to communicate the value of their solution because the buyers they work with are not asking the right questions. His advice provides some techniques for redirecting the conversation or asking the missing questions so that the necessary information gets across.

While we want to have a complete picture of each solution so that we can accurately compare our options, we’ve all made the mistake of asking questions that are so open ended that sales people talk ad nauseam about something we can't compare across the suppliers in contention. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t pieces of information we are missing out on.

Buyers Meeting Point’s long time advisor The Sales Guy has always advocated asking sales people something about their compensation package or their company's business development priorities so those factors can be brought into a thorough evaluation. What else should we ask?

Here are a few questions that The Sales Guy suggests working into your face-to face supplier meetings. Some are relevant for incumbents and some for new companies you are evaluating, but all of them will allow you to put together a better category management strategy and contract.

1. “If you are selling to my competitors what products and services are they buying more of and what is the value provided?”  “What are they buying less of?”
2. “We are spending $XXXK dollars with your company on an annual basis.  If I was to spend that same amount differently what changes would you recommend and why?” 
3. “What can our companies collaborate on that would help your company bring new products to market and provide competitive advantages for my company?”
4. “What business model changes is your company introducing and how might they be advantageous to my company?”

If you have a question for The Sales Guy, click here to submit it and we will get you an answer!

Apple has figured out that people do business with companies with good products, good customer service and an experience they enjoy.

You make money while you are spending money – a quote from Alpar Kamber’s father

This week’s featured event was an interview by Jon Hansen, host of the PI Window on Business Blog Talk Radio program, and Alpar Kamber, a Managing Partner with Denali Group and the Founder and Practice Lead of their Sourcing Services group. The broadcast recording is available on demand on the PI Window on Business site. You can also read more from the Denali Group leadership team in a recent Buyers Meeting Point interview: Planning for Sustainable Results: Long-term Vision, Short-term Action.

If you like what you hear and read, there are additional upcoming opportunities to interact with Alpar and the Denali team in a non-commercial setting. They are hosting two sourcing forums: one later this month in Pittsburgh and one in 2013 in Seattle.

This week's eSourcing Wiki article is about Transactional Focus. In the article, it is emphasizing there is a need to look at the entire supply chain, or the BIG PICTURE.

One idea plus one idea equals three ideas or more. You have a cow, I have a bull, together we have a business. When the output is greater than the sum of the inputs, this is value creation and it is this that has driven the whole progress of the human species.

-- Simon Horton, Negotiation Mastery

Negotiation Mastery by Simon Horton, an experienced negotiation teacher and consultant, is a practical and highly entertaining read whether you are a career negotiator or just wish your skills were a little stronger. In his decade-long career, he has helped hostage negotiators, law firms, financial institutions, and students from the graduate level through the boardroom improve their confidence and outcomes as they enter negotiations.

“Just because an animal is large, it doesn't mean he doesn't want kindness; however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh  

This week’s featured webinar was hosted by the Institute for Supply Management and included speakers from CAPS Research, Forrester Research, and two members of the Northrop Grumman supply chain team. Although talent management initiatives have historically been driven by human resources departments, an increasing number of supply management organizations are taking over this critical task as a part of their long term success strategy. The webinar is available on demand on ISM’s website.

“What pressures are coming to bear now, or in the foreseeable future, that may impact your supply chain and the ultimate sale of your products or services? Gathering market intelligence should include an understanding of what is happening in the economies of both your consumer’s as well as your supplier’s locations. This market intelligence can be used to both react to conditions and to take advantage of potential cost savings opportunities.”

--‘Understanding Market Pressures’ Managing Indirect Spend, Joe Payne and Bill Dorn

“Reverse auctions are loved by corporate purchasing managers, loathed by suppliers, and rarely discussed publicly by anyone involved.”

– Max Chafkin, Inc. Magazine

Where is the candy dish in your office or are YOU the keeper of the candy dish? Last week I was very tired in mid-afternoon and went seeking something sweet to give me that boost. I ended up selecting a moist, chewy and sweet chocolate tootsie roll. It really hit the spot and brought a smile to my face. How could it do anything but??  

This week’s featured webinar was presented by My Purchasing Center in conjunction with Corporate Contracts, Cardinal Health, and event sponsor Puridiom. The entire event (slides and audio) can be viewed on demand here.

We have two ears and one mouth but we rarely use them in that proportion. We are so anxious to tell our story or give our perspective, we don't stop to LISTEN to our suppliers, customers or partners.

I read this article from Smartblog on Leadership titled: Explore the benefits of customer and supplier partnerships.

It gives a few examples of suppliers and customers worked together to benefit both organizations. They started by listening to each other's perspective and asking each other the following questions:

1. What do you really need from me?
2. What do you do with what I provide you?
3. Are there gaps between what I give you and what you need?
4. What problems might I help you with?
5. Am I providing things you don’t need?

This type of listening and exploring with strategic customers/suppliers can produce significant positive results right to the bottom line.

So who has time for all this? We have to take care of all the email, phone calls and meetings on the calendar? How do we carve out the time and focus to do something like this? Will it be effective if we take small steps and at least begin the process?

The authors of this article, George H. Labovitz and Victor Rosansky, have a business process to support this and have written a book, Rapid Realignment. Based on some of the highlighted case studies, it certainly seems like a resource to explore.

Has anyone utilized this approach? What type of results did you see and what would you suggest?

This week's eSourcing Wiki article is about Guided Sourcing. We have all heard the phrase: "Work Smarter not Harder". With the proper tools and processes, that is certainly the goal and is achievable.

Sometimes the most interesting part of a blog post is the comment thread that follows it. Such was the case with a recent blog post on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

The cost of higher education continues to be increasingly expensive. I interviewed once at a large university for a procurement position. My children were of college age so I was very aware of the costs. While I did not take the position, they did indicate to me that their efforts to manage spend did get reflected in containing costs for tuition.   

This week’s featured webinar was sponsored by Coupa with main speaker Constantine Limberakis, Senior Market Researcher at Aberdeen Group. The slides from the event are available on Coupa’s website as a download. The event replay is also available here. You can also follow Constantine on Twitter: @ABG_SpendMngmt

This week's eSourcing Wiki article is about Home Country Sourcing. Many years ago, that is all that we did as each area worked with only local suppliers. It was rare to source anything internationally. That was too expensive for transportation and communication made it difficult to understand what was available.