When deploying SRM, different levels of activity are required, depending on the scope, complexity and maturity of the relationship. SRM in practice can have many complicated features, however, the basic principles are illustrated below: • Systematic creation, capture and maintenance of value (specific to that relationship) • Aligning interests to manage suppliers based on ‘rules of engagement’ (i.e. done ‘with’, rather than ‘to’, suppliers) • Collaboration with strategic suppliers, which may still be adversarial, from initial engagement to contract signature, through the term and throughout exit management • Ensuring the balance of value does not dissuade either party from implementing the correct behaviours • Enable commercial opportunities for both parties to grow the value of the relationship In order to have a structured form of SRM, the implication is that you have some form of strategic sourcing approach and capability to get a contract in place, a category management process to develop demand and supply chain strategies for the categories in question. While focus in recent years has been on the implementation of category management, it is clear that for many organisations there is still a need to embed SRM into their approach to strategic sourcing and category management in order to get better results than simply considering SRM as an afterthought once contracts are let.
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