“If you want to be a customer of choice, it's not going to come down to the contract, it's going to come down to the relationship, even at the individual level.” - Oliver Jones, Director (Procurement) for H&Z Management Consultancy

Procurement may be a highly tech-driven function – and growing ever more so by the day – but at its core, the quality of procurement’s relationships with internal stakeholders and suppliers ultimately determine their success or failure for the business. 

In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Oliver Jones, Director (Procurement) for H&Z Management Consultancy, about why the “relationship” part of supplier relationship management (SRM) is vital for procurement’s ability to deliver value to the business. He also shares his perspective on how procurement can overcome some of the more common obstacles to creating strong relationships, but why, in the end, it’s well worth the effort – for procurement, for suppliers, and for the business in general.

They also discuss:

• How multiple metrics of procurement’s success – like risk management, ESG, or value beyond savings – are all tied back to (and dependant on) supplier relationship management
• Why the ‘center-led’ operating model is the optimal framework to enable successful supplier relationship management
• Best practices for dividing procurement’s focus and prioritization among tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 suppliers

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Oliver Jones on LinkedIn