Have you ever wondered why you hire consulting firms? I have hired all the big firms early in my career but I did start questioning why I was doing it way back then also. We hire them because they are very effective at what they do but here’s the secret – you can ensure that your group is as effective as they are. All you have to do is assume you are running a consulting practice yourself – seriously, it’s that simple. And then go about building the best darn consulting practice you can and voila – no more consultants!!

Webinar
Is your company a “customer of choice” with your key suppliers? If not, you are leaving an incredible amount of value on the table. The best companies do an excellent job of Supplier Relationship Management. They ensure contract compliance, SLA monitoring, great issue resolution, excellent on boarding and divestiture of suppliers etc. etc. A lot of best practices can be had by emulating them and they should be emulated. But we believe that Next Practices takes you to a place where the relationships you have with your suppliers are a source of competitive differentiation. Your supply base can be a competitive weapon if you are willing to shift your approach from “managing” to optimizing. This requires a significant amount of collaboration and shedding the adversarial approach we have been using for years. – NEXT PRACTICES. PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT WEBINAR on TUESDAY, November 28th at 10:00 a.m. CDT. 

Blast From the Past
Last week I was running a workshop for Strategic Sourcing professionals and the subject matter was supplier selection and relationship management. One of the topics we discussed was the loss review. Some of the questions I received were:

  • Should we be doing loss reviews?
  • When do you let a supplier know that you do not want to do business with them?
  • How do you let them know? What do you / don’t you tell them?
  • How do you let an incumbent know that they have been displaced by a new supplier?
  • What do you tell the incumbent? How?
The Mpower Group | 630-268-8963|  http://blog.thempowergroup.com/