Managing supplier & alliance relationships

Negotiate outcomes, improve collaboration and drive results.

A shocking statistic…

If you're involved in managing important supply, outsourcing or alliance relationships, you'll know that many of these relationships are more like strategic partnerships than fleeting transactions.

But recent research has revealed a shocking statistic: 60-70% of those business partnerships fail to meet their objectives.[1] From large-scale infrastructure projects and IT outsourcing initiatives to R&D alliances and new joint ventures, partners are struggling to achieve high-quality outcomes that are on-time and under budget.

Research also unmasks the primary cause of this failure: poor relationship management.[2] Put simply, it's an inability to negotiate the tough day-to-day issues - like cost, scope, resourcing and deadlines - in collaborative and financially sustainable ways. As a result, conflict ensues, trust plummets, and the partnership is robbed of opportunities to innovate and create value. And in a cost-cutting economic climate, this challenge is even greater.

Industry response

Organisations ranging from Shell, VicRoads, Abigroup & Leighton Contractors, to IBM, Computer Sciences Corporation, Dimension Data and Johnson & Johnson are converging around a critical practice: empowering staff with the kinds of negotiation, problem solving and conflict management skills that ensure outstanding outcomes and enduring, collaborative relationships.

In a recent survey of 80 major organisations, respondents indicated that collaborative service provider relationships deliver an average of 40% more value than adversarial ones. Similarly, they noted that taking a range of active steps to manage the relationship - like enhancing collaborative negotiation capabilities - could deliver massive savings to their bottom lines.[3]

Building skills

The idea of fostering collaborative supplier relationships is not new. But the real challenge is to translate those ideas into how people do their jobs every day - especially when controversial issues arise in the life of a contract. That's why many organisations are using CMA to build practical skills through intensive, interactive skills training that ensures real behaviour change. CMA offers both public and highly-tailored, in-house programs across the following key areas:

• Negotiation and influencing

• Collaboration and joint problem solving

• Managing conflict and difficult conversations

• Supplier relationship management

CMA delivers these workshops through some of the most cutting-edge learning methods seen in Australia. They're intensive, interactive, highly experiential and draw on the latest research supporting feedback-based learning as the optimal pathway to lasting behaviour change.

Call us on (03) 9613 0444 to find out more about how we can help transform your critical partnerships, or contact us.