IT’S TIME TO REFRESH HOW WE THINK ABOUT OUR SUPPLIERS
Contracting with suppliers isn’t catching a fly in a trap. It’s courting a relationship, learning about each other, and ensuring your values align. It’s continuing to evaluate your present and future together. And – when you get out of your own way – sometimes it’s learning that the relationship isn’t the best thing for you.
We know that the relationship analogy has been overdone, but that’s because it’s relatable and accurate. The fact that these are business relationships should hopefully make you more objective about them – a little less emotionally involved – but it’s exactly the supplier’s job to ensure you are emotionally involved.
The Seprio Supplier Governance Operating Model
Most companies have adopted some form of supplier management. Traditionally, the focus of these programs has been on qualifying, selecting, onboarding, and managing relationships with suppliers, but there is much more required when so many companies have moved key operations and systems to supplier solutions. A new level of engagement is required at higher levels of the organization. Seprio has designed its Supplier Governance Operating Model to address this need. Simply put, Supplier Governance is an enterprise-wide view of your supply base to assure strategic alignment, optimize supplier performance, minimize supplier risk, and maximize value from your investment.
A Sneak Peek at The 2025 Seprio Summer Series
Over this summer, Seprio will release weekly articles highlighting the importance of properly governing your suppliers. This Series will introduce the four specific areas that must be addressed with your suppliers, (with a particular focus on those suppliers who are the most strategically and/or operationally important to your company’s success): Risk Management, Contract Management, Relationship Management, and Performance Management.
In our upcoming Risk Management and Contract Management articles, we’ll look in more detail at some of the risks introduced in the shift to new technologies and how your company can identify potential risks, plus how best to mitigate them. We’ll also discuss supplier rationalization as a tool to review and update your supply-base to stay abreast of your changing needs.
In our Relationship Management articles, we will discuss how your company can influence key suppliers’ strategic planning by opening a strong communication channel with your key suppliers, including senior executives for both companies. We’ll delve into the importance of executive-level engagement with strategic suppliers. Your senior leadership likely keeps a pulse on how well your internal operations are supporting your organization's goals and objectives, so why not have them also build their influence with externally provided supplier support, as well?
In the articles on Performance Management, we’ll discuss how your adoption of a structured, robust operating model, designed to fully vet your supply-base, can help reduce risk and set you up for stronger, long-term relationships with your key suppliers - relationships that will best support your key strategic business needs on an ongoing basis. Then, we’ll explain how regularly scheduled reviews of your suppliers’ performance, focused on making certain each key supplier is consistently achieving the expected results, will assure you that the value promised is the value received.
Welcome to the 2025 Seprio Summer Series: The Supplier Governance Operating Model. We hope you will find the series thought-provoking and an impetus to your team to consider adopting this approach.
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