Change Management and Strategic Sourcing | positivepurchaser

At this time of year we get involved in a lot of category reviews, exploring how clients are progressing in the delivery of new ideas, savings and added value. Looking back at these, we noticed a particular theme that crops up time and again ? how an approach to managing change affects success in strategic sourcing.

We advocate the use of a strategic sourcing process, to get us through the many and varied activities necessary to develop a ground-breaking strategy. However, in the worls of procurement, it is true to say that there is often more focus on the typical procurement activities in the strategic sourcing process, rather than some areas which, at first sight, appear to be optional.

However, these ?optional? elements are core to the success of Strategic Sourcing and focus on the essential change management activities that will help us be successful.

Change is something which most people resist to one degree or another. Imagine going to one of your stakeholders in the business and telling them that, for very valid business reasons, they will no longer be able to use their favourite supplier. Their natural reaction is to deny that you will make that change, then become increasingly frustrated and angry with the approach. Eventually they will, after a period of reflection, decide that they can try your idea and after a while may even come to like it.

However, people need help to get through this change, and providing that help is a fundamental part of change management within strategic sourcing.

The ?optional? elements in strategic sourcing processes are designed to provide that help. Consider Communications.

We place a lot of effort on communicating the progress through a strategic sourcing process, identifying and delivering messages at key times, to the right people. This is aimed at helping them understand the changes which are coming before they are introduced, which gives them time to get used to the concepts and what it means for them. Of course, some people will still hate the idea, but at least they will have had time to get used to it.

Understanding who stakeholders are in the business, and what their aims and desires are, is a second approach we can use. Clearly, to communicate to people, we have to understand who to talk to (or e-mail / leaflet / buy a coffee for). A Stakeholder Map will help us understand who we need to influence. However, we need to do this well, and understand the things they need and want from the products and services we are acquiring for them. Being able to show our stakeholders that we have listened to them is a large step in ensuring that they believe we have their best interests at heart.

We can also consider the use of training. Involving stakeholders in developing an understanding of the effort we are going to with a strategic sourcing process can help build support ? once they understand that it?s not just about price, but that we want to take on board the broad spread of business needs, it helps get people on board for the change journey.

These soft issues don?t help us get a better price, or add value in other ways. However, they are crucial to allow us to turn our opportunities into value for the company, by helping people adapt to the necessary changes along the way.

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Mark Hubbard is Co CEO at Positive Purchasing Ltd. Contact us at team@positivepurchasing.com

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I'm the co-CEO of a specialist purchasing consultancy based in PLymouth, UK. I work all over the world with clients, helping purchasing teams develop new ways of delivering value for their businesses. I love thinking about how purchasing works, and how it can be better, and I'd love to share some of those thoughts with you

Source: http://positivepurchaser.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/change-management-and-strategic-sourcing/

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