How big a challenge is it to get reliable data from suppliers, especially as you go down the tiers?
With so many tech solutions available, how do you go about picking the right ones?
How big a challenge is it to get reliable data from suppliers, especially as you go down the tiers?
Stuart Harker Last year, we completed a big campaign on engaging with our suppliers: 5,500 hotels globally, a similar number of suppliers and then all of the products and the services that go into those supply chains. We looked at the maturity of our suppliers, identified 80 % of their spend-based approach and then spoke to them and spent time with those suppliers to really understand them. Now, our category directors and category managers really know their suppliers. Last year, we really understood the landscape of our supply chain.
Marc Munier Stuart’ s taken the appropriate approach, which is to track the maturity of your suppliers. What we see is that small ones don’ t matter. There’ s a lot of talk about how you deal with immature suppliers – they’ re an immature supplier, they’ re probably not a big contributor to you. There may be some cases where they are, but it’ s very few and far between. The reason big companies are big companies is because they supply lots of other companies. So, those big companies have the most regulatory pressure and are generally more mature in their sustainability approach. Yes, there are immature suppliers in your supply chain, but don’ t worry about it because they’ re tiny. Again, once you’ ve done the big stuff, worry about the small stuff later.
With so many tech solutions available, how do you go about picking the right ones?
John Trenchard AI works on data and learning data. London Gateway( operated by DP World) is a big container terminal. We’ ve got 50,000 containers which are all mixed up and then the trucking company comes in and we have to play Tetris and touch each box about seven times. If the truck driver told us 12 hours in advance,“ I want that box”, we could just touch it once and then put it on the truck, saving CO2 efficiency, money and time. So, we’ ve used tech to start thinking about not just solving the problem with AI after the fact, but up front. For example, at London Gateway, before the end of the year, if you nominate your container more than 12 hours in advance, we will pay you £ 5. If you book at the last minute, we will charge you anything up to £ 14 pounds because we’ ve got to play Tetris, which
168 May 2025