Understanding and applying a research-based approach to improving your strategic partnerships / supplier relationships will have a significant return on investment

• Significantly reduce the management overhead - By increasing the level of collaboration on a number of key dimensions that our research has shown to be critical in effective supplier relationships.
• Establish the right partnerships from the outset - By understanding what makes partnerships work and building that into the selection, review and “re-contracting” process

Once the goals for the partnership are established, partners need to carry out a ‘health check’ on the current operations to assess strengths and areas for improvement.

Oakland’s approach looks at five key dimensions of good collaborative working:

• Strategic alignment: how well aligned are the partners and how do they achieve this alignment at all key levels of management?
• Customer focus:  to what extent do both parties develop and deliver the desired standards of service and experience across the whole service chain?
• Decision-making and governance: how the partnership is managed to best effect and efficiency
• Communications and transparency: how well data and knowledge is captured, shared and disseminated in a way that builds value and not cost
• Investment & Improvement: the extent to which the partnership jointly invests in and improves the partnership operations and outcome measures.

To contact an expert in Supplier Relationships for immediate help or further information, please contact us or telephone: +44 (0)113 234 1944