Overcoming resistance to change: Our tips

Are your prescribers reducing your sourcing efforts to nothing?

“You can sign a contract with whomever you want! But we won't go through your vendor ! ”
Have you ever heard such statements? Many Purchasing Managers know it. Their work is a constant struggle.

How to prevent resistance to procurement initiatives?

You must involve your employees, and this involvement cannot be superficial: they must have a say in decision-making throughout the sourcing process.

To implement this prevention, you will need to ask the presence of your prescribers to provide answers to the following questions, as they appear in the process:

• What are the specifications (Specifications)?
• What are the performance requirements for suppliers?
• What topics are we going to ask suppliers to send us a proposal on?
• On what criteria will be evaluated the suppliers and their proposals?
• How are suppliers evaluated and how can these criteria be measured?
• What will be the different weightings of these criteria?
• What are the various hidden and tangential costs that could distort the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) calculation?
• What level of non-performance can we accept?
• Who makes the final decision to select the supplier (s)?
• What process should be implemented to correct the poor performance of the selected supplier (s)?

Suggestions from collaborators will not always be able to correspond to final decisions. These decisions will therefore be the subject of preliminary internal negotiations. But by using this preventive practice, you can avoid being told, “We won't go through your supplier! ”.

In response to the resistance observed, many buyers are looking to Forcing their collaborators to support their choice of suppliers. However, the best way to reduce non-compliant expenses made with non-referenced suppliers is to practice proactive and continuous prevention.

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