Deep Thoughts on Collaborative Sourcing

Right as my two year old son decided to throw his blueberry fruit shake at the wall this morning, I came across this little piece on Line 56 describing the value that collaborative sourcing can bring. The author, Michael Philippart, is a former McKinsey consultant and the head of sourcing and procurement at GSK Biologicals. While a bit wordy and heady for the first thing in the morning, the article has some good ideas in it. For example, "Today, the Procurement leadership must develop its key suppliers to exploit quickly their skills to their advantage rather than for the benefit of the industry. To do so, it must facilitate seamless and exclusive transfer of value from the suppliers' ideas to the final consumers and back. That is the reason why Procurement must understand the lifecycle value creation potential of an item, not only as a driver of the Total Cost of Ownership but, more importantly, as a driver of product pricing through the premiums provided by exclusivity, and/or market growth for the company." Definitely worth a quick read.

- Jason Busch