The Purchasing Chessboard

The approach used on a given spend item should largely depend on the balance between supply power and demand power. That is the logic behind the bestselling Purchasing Chessboard®, used by hundreds of corporations worldwide to reduce costs and increase value with suppliers. The 64 squares in the Purchasing Chessboard provide a rich reservoir of methods that can be applied either individually or combined. And because many of these methods are not customarily used by procurement, the Purchasing Chessboard is also the perfect tool for helping buyers to think and act outside the box and find new solutions. A well-proven concept that works across all industries and all categories in any given situation, it is little wonder that business leaders and procurement professionals alike are excited by, and enjoy strategizing around, the Purchasing Chessboard. This second edition of The Purchasing Chessboard addresses the new realities of a highly volatile economic environment and describes the many—sometimes surprising—ways in which the Purchasing Chessboard is being used in today's business world. Yet despite all of the great achievements of procurement executives and their teams, they do not always receive the recognition they deserve. In response, the authors have developed and outlined within the book an unequivocal approach to measure procurement’s impact on a company’s performance—Return on Supply Management Assets (ROSMA®).

The “golden” age of purchasing, in which it was relatively easy to achieve annual cost reductions of between one and three percent, has come to an end. The major reasons for this are the consolidation in many supplier markets, rising energy costs, and growing resource consumption in many emerging markets such as China. To support companies that need to master the challenges in purchasing and achieve significant value propositions, the authors have developed the Purchasing ChessboardTM. The Purchasing ChessboardTM provides a suitable purchasing strategy for every constellation of buying power and selling power.

There’s a new buzz phrase in the air: Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). Corporate executives know it’s necessary, but there’s only one problem. Nobody yet knows how to do it. Or they think it’s all about bashing your vendors over the head until they reduce the price another 4%. Supplier Relationship Management: How to Maximize Vendor Value and Opportunity changes all that. Containing the best and most innovative advice from the operations and procurement experts at consultant AT Kearney, this book shows that SRM is at root a strategic discussion requiring cross-functional interaction and internal alignment at the highest levels. It requires an honest appraisal of the value that suppliers now bring to your firm, as well as their potential value. It then requires a frank and constructive business-to-business dialogue about how to improve the relationship. When this happens, a company reaps myriad benefits, ranging from new opportunity to added value to competitive advantage—and, quite likely, to overall (and sometimes substantial) cost reductions. This book shows the most concrete methods you can use today to: Identify value-adding opportunities in the supply chain Work closely with suppliers to maximize the benefits Work the "Critical Cluster" of suppliers, where the greatest opportunity for advantage lies Review suppliers to encourage constant gains in quality and cost Turn your SRM strategy into a major competitive advantage Supplier Relationship Management introduces and explains the Supplier Interaction Model, a key tool that will help you get the most from your supplier relationships. It segments the supplier universe into nine categories, from those you want to run away from fast to those so good and so useful to your organization that it can make sense to invest in them directly. Numerous case studies show how to apply the principles to your situation. Supplier Relationship Management burns off the fog that has surrounded the procurement process for far too long. It is the definitive guide for business executives who want to get the maximum benefits from suppliers and gain very real advantages over competitors.

The bestselling Purchasing Chessboard® concept, used by hundreds of corporations worldwide to reduce costs and increase value with suppliers, is the topic of this successful professional book now published in its third edition. The 64 squares on the Purchasing Chessboard provide a wealth of methods that can be applied either individually or in combination. And because many of these methods are not customarily used by procurement, the Purchasing Chessboard is also the perfect tool for helping procurement professionals to think and act outside the box and find new solutions. A well tested concept that works across all industries and all categories in any given situation, it is little wonder that business leaders and procurement professionals alike are excited by, and enjoy strategizing around, the Purchasing Chessboard. It encourages greater rigor and creativity and the building of world class capabilities. The explosive growth in analytics and the rise in the number of specialists in procurement practice have taken the application of the Purchasing Chessboard to new levels. This third edition of the book includes a rich assortment of case examples to reflect the lessons learned across geographies and industries. Some of the chapters have also been updated to accurately reflect these trends.

In the novel The CPO: Transforming Procurement in the Real World, we meet Thomas Sutter, a German-American living in Dusseldorf and working as a procurement manager for a major global automobile manufacturer, Autowerke. On a chance encounter while flying to Chicago, he meets the CEO of Heartland, a major food company in the U.S. Sutter impresses the CEO with his knowledge and, after a whirlwind courtship, he joins Heartland as its new Chief Procurement Officer, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hired to transform procurement at Heartland, Sutter has an enormous challenge: to bring its procurement practices into the 21st century and save the company $5 billion. Despite the knowledge and experience he gained at Autowerke, Sutter fights over the next 18 months to find his place at Heartland, institute world-class procurement models and methods, win over the procurement teams and senior executives, and meet his goal. At first, his reputation--and his marriage--suffer, along with the company's overall sales and revenue. Can he pull a rabbit out of the hat? The CPO: Transforming Procurement depicts the real-life challenges of transforming procurement, while demonstrating the benefits of innovative procurement and leadership methods. Written by global thought leaders in A.T. Kearney's procurement and supply management practice--consultants who have helped numerous companies chop billions of dollars in costs out of their procurement budgets--The CPO will prove invaluable for those in purchasing and procurement. It will also present essential information to those in the C suite looking for ways to boost profits and productivity. The CPO: Portrays best-in-class, real-life, actionable methods to turn procurement into a function that can save billions and improve the bottom line. Provides a fun way to learn essential lessons in procurement and change management. Shows how rejecting victimhood in all its aspects leads to personal and business success. Presents lessons in novel format--like The Goal, Who Moved My Cheese, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and others--to engage you and show techniques in action.

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- I: The World of the Web -- ONE. Of Great Powers and Globalization -- TWO. Networks Everywhere -- THREE. Seeing in Stereo -- II: Strategies of Connection -- FOUR. Resilience Networks -- FIVE. Task Networks -- SIX. Scale Networks -- III: Power, Leadership, and Grand Strategy -- SEVEN. Network Power -- EIGHT. A Different Way to Lead -- NINE. A Grand Strategy -- CONCLUSION: The Rise of Webcraft -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration Credits -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z

What do The Beatles, Apollo 13, the Roman military, a pack of wolves, and the very best companies in the world all have in common? Answer: Plasticity. They can change, adapt, and excel as the situation requires. In most organizations, strategy and functional excellence get the most attention. But even the best of either provides only limited long-term advantage. Highly effective organizations add Plasticity as a third dimension and rack up stellar breakthroughs—again and again. It is the key ingredient that allows strategy and functional excellence to deliver value. As the authors show in Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel, Plasticity also enables great organizations to break down barriers and collaborate in the pursuit of a common objective, and to reconfigure or rewire themselves to face down challenges or reach ever-stronger competitive positions. Through entertaining stories and astute analysis, this book demonstrates that Plasticity spurs sports teams to become champions, companies to book record earnings, and artists to attain worldwide fame. You can use its principles—adaptability, flexibility, fluid networks and roles, lofty goals, and innovation, among others—to achieve operational excellence, tear down silos, and create more vibrant, creative enterprises. Your organization can become not just highly profitable and fun to work for, but an organization that can change the world. Plasticity allows an organization to choose its own destiny, become versatile, and dare more than others. Its success lies in a set of abilities called the Magic 7: Purpose: Your company must discover, select, and express what it is meant for. Focus: Your company must have the courage to ignore everything that is not in line with its purpose, and then see that purpose through. Culture: Your company must create the conditions that allow people to work across boundaries and outside of predefined roles. Spirit: Your company must inspire people to feel part of a cause that is bigger than they are. Networking: Your company must provide the means, freedom, and encouragement for people to nurture and grow their internal and external networks continuously. Knowledge: Your company must encourage experts to provide their knowledge and make it readily available to everyone who needs it. Leadership: Your company's leaders must model and personify the characteristics they want others to adopt. Silo thinking? Poor collaboration? Weak earnings? Strategies that gain no traction? Corporate Plasticity: How to Change, Adapt, and Excel is the answer. It shows you how to cultivate each of the seven disciplines to infuse Plasticity in an organization. That—along with razor-sharp strategy and crisp execution—will unleash the power you need to reach both personal and corporate goals. You might even change the world.

Bestselling author and eminent foreign policy scholar Zbigniew Brzezinski's classic book on American's strategic mission in the modern world. In The Grand Chessboard, renowned geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski delivers a brutally honest and provocative vision for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. The task facing the United States, he argues, is to become the sole political arbiter in Eurasian lands and to prevent the emergence of any rival power threatening our material and diplomatic interests. The Eurasian landmass, home to the greatest part of the globe's population, natural resources, and economic activity, is the "grand chessboard" on which America's supremacy will be ratified and challenged in the years to come. In this landmark work of public policy and political science, Brzezinski outlines a groundbreaking and powerful blueprint for America's vital interests in the modern world. In this revised edition, Brzezinski addresses recent global developments including the war in Ukraine, the re-emergence of Russia, and the rise of China.