Why greenwash won't wash...

The term 'greenwash' can be traced back to the 1980s, but the practice of it - companies conveying a false impression of their environmental efforts - existed long before.

Four steps to create true and sustainable commercial value from Supplier Management

After winning the buy-in of the business for your plans, you need to find ways to achieve the results you pitched

State of Flux announces the opening of new office in New Zealand

Understanding the C-level challenge to unlock the commercial value of Supplier Management

Procurement leaders should ensure their business case for supplier management goes beyond the financial benefits that can be achieved.

The soft skills that hold the key to commercial value

Over the 12 years that State of Flux has been conducting research into supplier management best practices, the theme of ‘people and skills’ has continued to demonstrate that the behavioural side of SRM far outweighs technical skills when it comes to delivering real commercial value. Add to this that our most recent 2020 research shows that just 17% of organisations have conducted an SRM capability assessment, and we have real cause for concern. The result is that the majority of organisations have no evidence based view that their people are actually equipped with the behaviours that build collaborative supplier relationships.

State of Flux welcomes Louise Whyte and Steven Nieri

State of Flux is delighted to announce two new hires in the US and EMEA businesses. Steven Nieri and Louise Whyte both bring with them extensive experience of procurement transformation and procurement cost reduction which add to our core strengths in supplier management.

Dash-for-cash: The short term tactic that will do more harm than good

During recent times, supply chains and supplier relationships have been tested like never before, putting the Chief Procurement Officer centre-stage and in the spotlight to find solutions as businesses try to protect operations, revenue and profitability. Throughout the Covid-19 crisis we’ve seen many procurement teams adopt a so-called “dash for cash” response (i.e. a classic cost-out initiative) - whilst not a surprising response to a crisis it’s a very short term in focus and easy to do. There are many levers available for such an approach (control demand, change the specification, limit usage, aggregate spend and so on). Yes, cost-out has the potential to yield results quickly and it will help the bottom line but it can do a lot of damage at the same time - the kind of damage that is difficult to undo.

We’re not saying that cost-out is intrinsically a bad thing, but how it is done is crucially important. It’s often used without fully appreciating the wider consequences - it hurts supplier margin and it kills the goodwill in supplier relationships. And as we slowly work towards post-Covid recovery, an organisation that just a few months ago acted with scant regard for its suppliers will probably not be a ‘customer of choice’ to those same suppliers going forward.

Working in the time of COVID – what will stay what will go?

There can be little doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has been the most significant, and perhaps the most traumatic experience many of us will have had in our lives. It has and will continue to have a huge impact on us as individuals, as a society and as a workforce.

What are your suppliers thinking?