To any strategic sourcing initiative there are eight basic “foundation” components (or steps) to building an organised strategic sourcing model. These guide the Procurement function when managing improvement, or effecting change to spend areas or processes, with the overall goal of reduced cost and greater process efficiency and effectiveness. These components can be used collectively … Read more

Ethics in procurement consist of a wide based set of values (or ethics code) that govern the Procurement Process for both the buyer and suppler base, ensuring professionalism and integrity for all concerned parties. These Ethical values would provide for critical considerations such as expectations, vendor and internal stakeholder relationships, social responsibility, environmental, supply and … Read more

Some while back I posted a LinkedIn Poll on what are the current major contributing factors to Procurement Risk. Many thanks to those that participated. The feedback from the Poll was statistically as follows: Rising Logistics costs as a factor: 40% Unspecified Macro Eco-Political reasons: 30% Knock on effect from the Russo-Ukrainian War: 18% Unspecified … Read more

Introduction to topic In this two- part article, a broad overview to frame working Strategic Vendor Management shall be covered. In part One we dealt with what defines SVM, why you need it and do you need it. In the second part of the topic, we shall review the components of the actual SVM Framework. … Read more

Introduction to topic In this two- part article, a broad overview to frame working Strategic Vendor Management shall be covered. In part one I shall deal with how SVM helps the organisation and how to know whether an SVM Programme is needed. Defining Strategic Vendor Management Strategic Vendor Management (SVM) aka Vendor Relations Management is … Read more

Introduction This topic presented as a series of two overview sub- articles pragmatically explores the reasons why an empowered quality-based HC component, is vital to you the Procurement manager. In article one we covered the impact of human capital on management and operational outcomes. In this second part we shall briefly focus on Internal Stakeholder … Read more

ARTICLE ONE Introduction This topic is presented as a series of sub- articles pragmatically exploring the reasoning why an empowered quality-based HC component of your Procurement Management Portfolio, is vital to you the manager. Tech companies naturally tout the benefits of their technological solutions within Procurement, and they do have a genuine sales point. However … Read more

There is much written and said about successful vendor management. However very little concerns the fundamental cornerstones of sound vendor management. The below listed cornerstones, though ridiculously obvious, are frequently ignored and if, are the root cause of many supplier and internal stakeholder disputes that often have far reaching and bitter consequences. 1) Vendor Due … Read more

Procurement Due Diligence is frequently mentioned in the South African press regards the ongoing revelations around the PPE corruption debacle, as well as other current and past ones.  Providing the Vendor Selection & Appointment Process is NOT compromised, Due Diligence is vital to any Procurement Executive and their employer organisation to ensure an optimised supply … Read more

When planning any form of successful Strategic Sourcing Change Initiative, the pre-planning (prepping) is as important as the actual Change Initiative planning and implementation itself. This is obvious, even to those with minimal change initiative experience, but it is astonishing how many times these basic pre-plan components are overlooked and result in Initiative failure or … Read more