I hope that you have enjoyed the article “Supplier Management: Make It Strategic.”

It’s a busy business world. We all love shortcuts. If we can get things done the easy way, all the better.

Procurement professionals may face certain temptations with supplier evaluation and management programs. Some may think, “If someone has launched a supplier management program before, why not just copy what they’ve done? Why reinvent the wheel?”

The problem is that your organization might not need a “wheel” for its supplier management program. It might need the equivalent of an ice skate or even “magnetic levitation.” What’s good for another company may not be good for yours.

To make a supplier management program truly strategic, it has to be linked to the improvement of the measurable performance of the overall organization – not just the procurement department. That requires that you craft the program very, very specific to your organization. As simple as this sounds, it is the reason that such little budget is granted to supplier management projects; too few procurement departments ensure that strategic alignment.

The bottom line is that what other companies have done is not the endpoint for your supplier management program. It is the beginning point if you want to make it strategic.

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