The Truth Behind Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) in 2022

Hey, Procurement Legends. I want to talk about Supplier Relationship Management. I truly believe SRM is going to be a big part of Procurement moving forwards. It's been around forever but a lot of companies struggle to implement it.

I'm going to cover so broad parts of SRM here to hopefully help you with your own SRM journey.

The buyer-supplier relationship is constantly evolving.

Suppliers are becoming even more strategic to businesses, which means that procurement teams need to be able to react quickly, innovate efficiently and evolve their relationship with suppliers.

The Covid Pandemic taught businesses that Procurement was essential and that it was more than about cost. However, as we now enter a world of economic downturn, with recessions across the globe, impacts of global warming destroying communities, shortages of key components and materials, and global supply chain disruption…are we going to continue with the advances within procurement or regress and be the cost cutters again?

I hope it’s the former and this means one thing in particular for me.

This means that Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is an increasingly important aspect of procurement in 2022.

The key challenge for most organisations is how to find the right suppliers in the first place; however many businesses struggle with identifying which suppliers will add value at the right price point and how best to manage them over time through collaborative partnerships rather than adversarial relationships where both sides benefit mutually from working together long term.

Will this idea be in CPOs minds as their business needs to save a penny where ever possible?

The buyer-supplier relationship is constantly evolving.