Procurement List Series- #1: how to improve with my internal customers?

Continuous improvement is my passion, procurement is my playing field and lists are one of my favorite tools. In this Procurement List Series, I will share with you a part of my personal ideas, questions, thoughts and actions to help you think how you can improve your game level in procurement and drive the change with simplicity. Nothing about systems, only about people. Nothing magical, only back to some forgotten basics.

Please do not hesitate to comment, share and provide feedback, this will make all of us improve together.

Our Internal Stakeholders Are Our Customers.

They are working in Marketing, Engineering, Finance, IT, Manufacturing, Human Resources, Operations, Sales, Supply Chain, Legal, Quality… and they are on the front line with our Suppliers.

The mission of Procurement is to select and drive the external resources with purpose and turn supply-market capabilities into value. It is not any more to source at the lowest prices only, it is to guarantee our external partners will drive more value for our Business and achieve at least quality, schedule, financial, compliance, innovation targets. Our internal Stakeholders define these targets and needs of external capacities.

We call them internal Stakeholders and Procurement would not exist without their needs. We are here to serve them, they are our Customers.

Partnership is Essential to Drive Value

The better our service to our internal Customers, the higher their satisfaction, the greater value we create together, the better our common success... the better our job!

I am convinced that the success of Procurement teams relies in their capacity to build a successful interaction and partnership with their internal Customers. Engaging efficiently with our internal customers drives value. The more we understand in depth their needs, the more we are able to bring value to the table. The more we can demonstrate business value, the more they will sponsor our activities. The more we will create alignment of our goals, the more we will be able to develop a common agenda and deliver the highest performance.

Nurturing a strong relationship is the only way to showcase Procurement's value!

How Often Do You Nurture Your Partnership with your internal Customers?

How good do you rate your relationship with your internal Customers? Are you delivering the value they are expecting? Are you aligned on the same goals? How often do you connect with them to discuss what they are expecting? Do you spend enough time with them to understand all their current difficulties and their future needs? How could you deliver more together? Are you helping them to redefine sometimes the value by bringing new ideas? Do you really understand their business priorities?

These current uncertain times are are a great opportunity for change. Be proactive and lead the process!

My proposal is not science rocket. It is one way to improve, a guideline and some ideas. But please remember: do your homework first, listen and question to understand, do not come with your answers.

My Proposal in 5 Steps

• Get prepared, know your purpose, know your mission, know your value.
• Contact your first main internal Customer (or your preferred one if you want to practice) and explain simply your approach.
• Listen actively to them, ask only questions and get proactively their feedback.
• Identify jointly areas of excellence (be positive) and improvement (be ambitious).
• Commit yourself by taking simple actions, not too many but few ones with a clear schedule, a defined follow up and the next joint milestone.

My List of 5 Question Sets

#1-Understand how you could support them better in the coming days/weeks (as an introduction)

• Do they have new or updated objectives?
• Are they making new business/working plans you could support? with new products to face new trends?
• What are their top priorities? And what is their schedule?
• Where do they expect you to add more value in short term?
• Which help and insights do they need from suppliers?

#2-Identify where your team and their team are exceptional and how you could even reinforce your joint performance 

• On which topics are they well aligned? and well performing? 
• What were their last successes? 
• What was key in these successes?
• Which learned lessons have become best practices?
• Did you celebrate these successes jointly with your teams?

#3-Agree on where you should both improve and identify one action you can implement immediately 

• On which topics are you frankly not so well aligned? 
• Do you share a common understanding of this gap? At least do you understand their point of view?
• What would be the proposal from your partner to close this gap?
• What would be the first step to implement his proposal? Or an adjusted counter-proposal you might suggest?
• How could you frame and commit yourselves on a quick action plan?

#4-List your best business partners and your worst vendors, and define how you could seize more opportunities

• Can they list your 5 best and 5 worse suppliers?
• Can they explain and rank their criteria?
• Can they detail why they are terrific?
• Have they identified new suppliers they would like to work with? and why?
• How could you evaluate your supplier network jointly on a regular basis?

#5-Define how you could align your external business partners with the strategy of your company

• In which area would it be worth to invest? Do you need to boost innovation or strengthen total cost improvements or improve quality?
• Have they identified the few key and strategic suppliers?
• What would they expect from strategic discussions (future roadmaps and innovation, global footprint and opportunities...) with your suppliers?
• Is a new procurement strategy required, to address new skills, new products, new markets… with new suppliers?
• How do they imagine to take an active part to this procurement strategy?

I really hope this will give you some ideas (at least one!) and encourage you to go beyond your current relationship with your internal Customers. Cooperation and partnership are key, these uncertain times give you a great opportunity to change for the better and build higher resilience.

Please do not hesitate to comment, share and provide feedback, this will make all of us improve together.

If you need some specific support or just want to discuss, I will be very happy to connect with you and schedule a call. Please do not hesitate to ask, it will be my pleasure to answer!

Boris

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