E-Sourcing Forum » Sugar Procurement

Sugar Procurement

October 17th, 2006 at 08:18am David Bush - Iasta

I got a kick out of the recent Sweet Talk article on SupplyManagement.com. The article is based on an interview by the author with Sir Alan Sugar, a prominent figure in British Business, on Sir Alan’s views of Procurement.

Maybe it was the tone of the article or the wit of the author, but you have to like the no-nonsense quotes from Sir Alan:

“If you don’t buy right, you have no business.”
“If the buyer is a liar, he or she will lose all credibility. They’ll get away with it once or twice, afterwards they will have no credibility whatsoever. It’s as simple as that.”
“You have to build relationships with your vendors, so that in good times and bad times you have support.”
“It is vital not lose the commercial edge - being able to negotiate is an art.”
“What I’ve seen over the 40 years I’ve been in business is young people coming in thinking that they’ve done a great job. ‘I’ve been mercenary picking out the existing supplier, bringing another one in,’ just to save a few pennies, but it all backfires in the end.”
“You have to let your supplier earn some money. Pushing their back against the wall is not good.”

In other words, procurement is very important, as Michael Lamoureux over at Sourcing Innovation says, Collaboration is Key, and fairness is what it’s all about. That’s why we recommend our clients, be they software or services, use the full sourcing cycle backed up by a full sourcing suite, including decision optimization, to determine the best way to award the buy, and not just a lowest bidder takes all e-Auction, since the best award is one where everyone wins and works together to drive down prices. After all, any bid where your supplier is not making a fair profit will not only be unsustainable, but will probably end up costing you more in the long run when you have to quickly switch suppliers.

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