Strategies need evidence

One the hardest things when developing category or sourcing strategies is to stop anyone making the decision before all the facts and data have been gathered and analysed, and all the options identified and assessed. Without the facts and data that provide the total cost and benefit of all the options available how can anyone make a decision?

Emotion is a strong motivator but it doesn't always deal in logic. "We should go with this supplier" is only a valid strategy if sufficient information is available to tell the story of why. "Because the current supplier is useless" is not an acceptable reason. They might be - but why, what does useless look like, what's the cost of that poor performance, what options exist to improve the current supplier, what are the business requirements, what are our current costs, what other suppliers are in the market, what criteria are important when making the decision, what are all the options that are available, what will all the costs and benefits of those options be and so on.  

I know it's tempting to say let's :

• Terminate this supplier - before we realise the contribution we're making to their poor performance 
• Single source - before we've analysed the data and realised there's no single supplier able to take on 100% of our requirements
• Dual source - before we realise only one supplier can meet our needs and we'd be better adopting supplier relationship management with them
• Tender - before we realise the business requirements require a complete overhaul and what we tender for today would not delivery any value improvements until that happens
• Outsource - before we really understand what we're wanting to outsource
• Develop the relationship further - before we realise the supplier is exploiting us

When developing category or sourcing strategies we need to develop the business requirements, understand the supply market, undertake supplier analysis, understand the costs and supply chain. It's only by undertaking this analysis with rigour that we can determine the options, assess these options against the criteria and then make a recommendation.

I found myself writing the other day that "senior management approval will only be achieved if we are able to provide evidence of the efficacy of our recommendations." If emotion and subjective statements are our only response we'd best be ready for a disappointment!

I was very pleased with our presentation of a sourcing strategy to a senior leadership team recently. We presented a 10 page summary document. Every question they asked we were able to provide an answer and the evidence for it - either in the 10 pages or with reference to a larger 90 page document and multiple (and I mean muliple) excel worksheets. We never once uttered the words "we haven't thought of that" or "I don't know" because we'd done the analysis and we had all the answers (I do so love excel spreadsheets :-)).

That's how procurement adds value to an organisation in understanding the value that can be added once, and only once, all the facts and data have been gathered and analysed.

Footnote: Living in Scotland means it's only a matter of time before I'm asked to engage in the question of Independence (and I'm dreading that day.) Currently, with my procurement hat on, I'm astounded that anyone can be suggesting which option is the right one. If a category manager came to me with a statement that they knew the strategy we should adopt (which both sides seem to be doing) with so little thought about all the implications to the business, no business requirements, no cost and benefit analysis, no analysis of the market, no criteria for selection, no risk analysis undertaken and no analysis of the other options - I'd tell them to go away until they'd carried out that analysis. In fact I'd doubt their integrity and expertise because a decision could not be made without that level of detail.

Scotland is being asked to make a decision on 18th September 2014 when both sides are currently running around trying to determine why their option is the right one and constantly uttering the words "I hadn't thought of that" "I don't know" or even worse "we'll only know that after the decision has been made"

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach

Source: bellacaledonia.org.uk via Alison on Pinterest

Hate or love?

You can't always take the blogger out of the girl I find and having convinced myself of the folly of writing this blog five days ago the subject matter continues to swirl around my mind and I realise its something I care about too deeply to ignore.

On Friday a FaceBook update from the British Heart Foundation appeared on my news feed. It said

' I hate heart failure because........'

Picture source: bhf.org.uk via Alison on Pinterest

Please tell me I'm not alone in being perplexed at the languaging here? I couldn't get past the first few comments because of the negative energy it produced. Every comment starting with the words 'I hate heart failure because ....' and giving their reason.

I'd love to know what the British Heart Foundation thinks contributes to heart failure? If this update is anything to go by they certainly seem to be forgetting the mind's contribution. For me they might as well have been inviting us to a party where the only food on offer was cream cakes, pies, white bread sandwiches, processed foods, chocolates, sweets and plenty of fizzy drinks. I'm sure that decsion would have been seen as inappropriate (and they agree here re junk food advertising) - so why is this appropriate?

I thought I might be over reacting and that this was just a simple mistake of someone posting on their behalf. Then I realised its an advertising campaign!!

• Surely there's enough scientific evidence about the mind's contribution to our well being?
• Surely there's enough evidence about what hate means and does to us?
• Surely its counter productive for an organisation who wants to 'keep more hearts beating' to invite people to hate anything. Let alone invite us to experience the one emotion that I'm sure can contribute to stopping a heart beating.

It's not lost on me that this blog has a negative energy about it that I suggest it not something we should foster. Perhaps the BHF felt the same as me that sharing frustration was valid. Perhaps we both have the same objective to make a difference. For me I hope this blog acts as a reminder of the impact the language we use can have and the mind/body connection. I can't answer for BHF - they certainly got a lot of people 'hating'. Let's hope it also makes us all realise we don't want to hate anything that much and start to think about lifestyle changes we can make to reduce the risk of it happening. After all - that is what we all want - right?

Although I will be starting by not hating anything!

Don't stretch yourself too much

Get out of your comfort zone, do something different every day, trust yourself - all have their place. I'm sure a large number of my blogs have encouraged us all to do these more often. There's also many stories here where my lack of trust has been shown to be inaccurate when my personal trainer has said "you can do it", and I've listened to him and not my inner voice that said "no you can't."

Today in yoga was a little different. My knees were hurting and I was really struggling with the sun sequence.

Picture source: londonyogi.com via Alison on Pinterest

My knees felt like they needed oiling. I was wobbling, slow and not really feeling the benefits nor the energy liftingness (sp?) of the sequence.

Sally, our instructor, then gave me some easier options that took the strain off my knees. What a difference that made and not in the way I expected. Instead of feeling like it was easier, less strenuous and therefore less effective it felt the opposite. Suddenly the energy from the ground came up through my legs and I felt stronger and more in control. Such a surprise.

I'm sure that's as applicable in life - instead of choosing the path where we're constantly off balance and unsure why not opt for the more solid path that will enable strength to build for the long term. That certainly feels more sustaining.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring strong and sustainable procurement teams