RISK & RESILIENCE
While that sounds wild from a commercial perspective, we’ ve been stung in the past by committing too much without flexibility. We need everything to be economically viable and fair for both parties.
Q. THIS SOUNDS LIKE A SIGNIFICANT CULTURE SHIFT. HOW HAS THAT BEEN RECEIVED INTERNALLY?
» Honestly, the internal reaction was,“ Thank God.” Many people didn’ t realise they were overspending until the end of the financial year. We’ ve structured procurement into three clear areas to support this:
1. Enablement: Handling onboarding, background and credit checks.
2. Sourcing: Negotiating and implementing the contracts.
3. In-life Commercial Contract Management: Managing the supplier relationship closely throughout the term.
Most stakeholders didn’ t understand the contract infrastructure before, so this transparency has been a positive experience for them.
Q. WHAT ABOUT THE EXTERNAL REACTION FROM YOUR SUPPLIERS?
» That was the real challenge. Suppliers were used to us just saying,“ Yep, sure, let’ s get it done”. We had strong backing from our finance team – specifically our
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