SIG University Certified Supplier Management Professional (CSMP) program graduate Andy Peksa shares what he finds as the most important aspects of a supplier relationship and how they may be able to help you in your role.
Andy Peksa, Senior Buyer-Procurement Ops, T. Rowe Price
SIG University Certified Intelligent Automation Professional (CIAP) program graduate Josh Millman discusses how automation processes have helped his organization and what they can do for yours.
Josh Millman, a Jr. Salesforce Administrator, Sourcing Industry Group
SIG University Certified Sourcing Professional (CSP) program graduate Tracie Ninh shares an outside perspective for integrating the best sourcing practices into your team.
Tracie Ninh, Vice President Supplier Diversity Specialist, BNY Mellon
As a supply chain professional, you already know the value in establishing and maintaining relationships, but are you maximizing your communication strategy? For millennials, the use of social media is natural; it’s a part of our everyday lives. For other generations, it’s hit-or-miss. Some people are social media privy, some are experts and some avoid it like the plague. Whether or not individuals choose to use social media from a personal standpoint is their own prerogative. Whether or not companies use social media for their brands shouldn’t be a question at all. We live in a digital age where virtually (no pun intended) everything is online. So, it makes perfect sense for you to market your brand online. While having a website is absolutely essential, you also need vehicles to drive traffic to it—one major channel for that is social media. If you’ve totally been ignoring digital transformation for your brand, let’s make a U-turn, take the bull by the horns and start with the following seven steps.
Choose your Platforms
There are 1.5 billion people using social media. Exciting, right? There is a whole virtual universe out there for you to explore. Each social media platform was designed for a different (sometimes just slightly) purpose. In addition, each platform generally reaches unique (yet sometimes overlapping) audiences. Once you understand each platform, you can develop your segmentation strategy. Don’t underestimate the power of these platforms for connecting with your suppliers, vendors and customers. They are using them too and you can learn a lot by being on the platforms they are frequenting.
Create a Voice That’s Consistent Across All Platforms
You work hard to build a reputation that’s trustworthy. You’ve created a beautiful logo, compelling marketing collateral, engaging online campaigns and held endless photo shoots – and the list goes on. However, all your hard work is in vain, if you don’t know what others are saying about you or your suppliers. For example, most companies don’t know if there are slaves in their supply chains. It might sound far-fetched, but human traffickers target unskilled workers to fulfill shortages all along a supply chain and if you’re like most companies, you aren’t even aware of it. Monitoring your online presence, in addition to the reputation of companies you do business with, will provide valuable insights for your brand, and more importantly – will keep you in the know when the reputation of others in question.
These social media tools can help you better monitor your online presence and the reputation of others.
Mention - Paid Service
Mention is an online platform that provides real-time web and social media monitoring. Mention is very user-friendly and is a great way to stay informed every time someone mentions your name, brand or dedicated keywords. The platform is able to monitor billions of online sources in various languages, providing you with super rich data as to what is trending or popular. You can set the platform to receive daily alerts, instantly respond to social media alerts from inside the web portal, set priority status and collaborate with your social media team to improve customer support. This is a great tool for people looking to increase their brand’s awareness, monitor their reputation and grow relationships both online and through social media.
With global sports industry revenues over $145Bn and growing at a rate of 3.7% over the past 4 years, it is evident now more than ever, that behind the tackles and buzzer beaters, sports remains a business. Negotiations in business are usually governed by several tangible measurable data points that are indicative of future performance. Given below are a few aspects that are unique to negotiations in the sports industry:
The "cloud" is allowing Procurement organizations to engage beyond their four walls with peer organizations - for benchmarking and collaborative buying - and with suppliers for new product innovations and supply chain efficiencies. Procurement organizations have long focused most of their attention on getting their own houses in order...streamlining internal transactional processes to promote efficiency, realigning organizational resources to focus more on strategic and less on tactical or transactional activities...all for the betterment of their organizations. With foundational internal platforms and processes in place, more organizations will begin utilizing the cloud to get connected outside their enterprises in a number of new and exciting ways. Cloud technologies make it easier than ever before to collaborate with external enterprises – both suppliers and their peer group. And according to Capgemini Consulting, procurement needs to rapidly shift their attention to supplier collaboration, especially early involvement in new product introduction, in order to drive innovation: "Organizations are still reluctant to involve procurement and suppliers early enough in product development and innovation. And Procurement is still viewed as a silo function with KPIs that remain focused on tactical and cost reduction activities." While 80% of more than 1,000 CPOs surveyed by Capgemini concede that suppliers are involved too late in the corporate innovation process, they recognize that suppliers contribute value beyond the products and services they provide, both in terms of the quantity, speed and agility with which they provide them:
Richard Waugh, Vice President, Corporate Development, Zycus Inc.
What is Important For Me In a Supplier Relationship
SIG University Certified Supplier Management Professional (CSMP) program graduate Andy Peksa shares what he finds as the most important aspects of a supplier relationship and how they may be able to help you in your role.