Very often the archaic nature of processes connected to strategic sourcing makes this value chain link become the weakest and ultimately fail. This can be countered only by energetically introduced changes. What should one do when the supplier occupying a strategic position in the supply chain becomes a more and more independent entity? How can one prevent that entity’s escape to the competition? Finally, how to build the new quality of relation with them to remain in a symbiotic i.e. bilaterally beneficial relationship?

The law of the jungle.

The contemporary, ever more dynamically changing business environment puts numerous challenges before enterprises. Meeting them requires changes both in the procedures and the way one thinks. The field of procurement is especially prone to the negative impact of environmental changes, since it evolves at a slower pace than other fields. More and more often suppliers become ever more independent elements of the market. Those who change the dependency between the purchaser and the supplier from carnivorousness to symbiosis start becoming successful. Those are the ones who first occupy the best positions in the new market niche. There is not enough place for the rest.

Look for partners, not prey.

More and more processes and activities, which directly affect the competitiveness of our enterprises, take place outside of them. In order to constantly adapt to the dynamic environment one needs to stop thinking about their organization as the “apax predator”, since the hunt for the best offer alone is no longer enough to maintain their dominating position. Suppliers, especially those who fulfill a strategic role in our industry, are becoming more and more independent.

An example of a brand, which thanks to betting on the symbiotic perception of relationships with suppliers achieved extraordinary market success, is Apple. This enterprise has for a long time been perceived as one possessing the best-organized supply chain. The strength of that brand is the skillful creation of a buzz around their products and building demand for them. Apple’s supply chain is constructed in such a manner, that the enterprise shares with its suppliers both responsibility and the possibility to impact the image of the brand. In order to ensure the complete uniqueness of the product, this American giant relies on symbiosis with business partners on both sides of the value chain.

In order not to become stuck in a constantly disappearing niche, where there is not enough place for us, and to reach the broad waters of symbiotic relationships with the supplier, one needs to answer a series of questions. The first of them is as follows:

Is our enterprise ready to reevaluate thinking about relations with suppliers and from a carnivore turn into a symbiont?

Do not get yourself eaten.

Every day we read about enterprises managed in a traditional manner, which are consumed by the brave and innovative market participants. Those “new ones” often have access to technologies or methods of conducting business, which allow introducing changes to the environment. Such aggressive players win quickly. Mainly because the traditional market players do not notice their arrival.

How to counteract such “invasive species”? Let’s not look for prey but collaborators. Thanks to tightening of the relationships with strategic suppliers, who have direct impact on the creation of the enterprise’s values and improving its market position, we gain broader access to information on the business environment, and above all things on threats, that lurk therein. Maintaining relations with the market allows foreseeing the actions of competitive enterprises and reacting accordingly.

If we give positive answers also to the questions below, then we are ready to fight for our position on the market. We are ready to eat and not be eaten.

Is your enterprise ready for negotiations concerning the structure and nature of relationships with the supplier, and not immediately for price negotiations?

Is your enterprise aware that making the previously strongly protected operational areas available to suppliers will enable you to build a new, better quality required by clients?

Is your enterprise ready to share responsibility for certain processes between the sourcing department and suppliers?

Adapt or die.

The majority of techniques used in the field of sourcing is strongly outdated. Processes and the way they are managed reach back to the industrial revolution times. In the age of breakthrough technologies, old methods, solutions designed for problems that no longer exist, result only in gradual, slow improvements and not a comprehensive, transformative change. In the face of breakthrough technologies, global digitization and the economy of collaboration, those methods are no longer sufficient. These are the questions we must answer in order to adapt to the market properly:

Is your enterprise ready to change the way it measures relations with suppliers?

Are you ready to act as the vanguard of change and bear the flame of (r)evolution in relations with suppliers?

If we leave the old priority for relations with suppliers, it will produce the old results. When the environment changes dynamically, they will not be sufficient to maintain a satisfactory level of the supply chain. The time has come when only the bold and innovative can win a niche for themselves. The rest are bound to go extinct.