Strategic Category Management

A significant portion of every dollar a company earns in revenue flows out the door as the cost of acquiring the wide array of products, services and assets needed for its operations. The only costs that are truly internal are payroll (which goes to employees) and dividends (profits distributed to owners). Everything else is an outflow to an external supply base. Supply management professionals are tasked with a vital responsibility: effectively managing those outflows (spends) in ways...
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A significant portion of every dollar a company earns in revenue flows out the door as the cost of acquiring the wide array of products, services and assets needed for its operations. The only costs that are truly internal are payroll (which goes to employees) and dividends (profits distributed to owners). Everything else is an outflow to an external supply base. Supply management professionals are tasked with a vital responsibility: effectively managing those outflows (spends) in ways that deliver a competitive advantage. They must concurrently acquire products and services from the best suppliers, at the right price, quality, and time; leverage the capabilities of suppliers effectively to drive process improvements and innovation; and manage the multitude of risks posed to the business from disruptions born in the extended supply chain. This requires comprehensive spend management strategies based on sound market and business intelligence. In this book, Sanjit Menezes maps out the key steps to developing those strategies in four critical areas: sourcing, pricing, supplier relationships and supply risk. Based on his experiences with Fortune 500 companies and other global organizations across a variety of industries, he provides a valuable framework that includes plenty of tools, techniques, examples, and lessons supply managers can readily apply to develop and implement robust knowledge-based strategies. The book is divided into four distinct but interlinked sections. * Section 1 covers the sourcing process and what it takes to develop a winning supply base. * Section 2 provides tools and techniques to ensure prices paid to suppliers are fair and reasonable. * Section 3 lays out a framework to develop value-driven relationships with suppliers. * Section 4 outlines a methodology to effectively manage supply risk. The concepts, processes, and steps are laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow fashion and are interlaced with relevant examples and stories from Menezes' work that are compelling yet uncomplicatedly understandable.