Building Resilience: Effective Category Management and Supplier Relationship Management

Training Key Themes
- Understanding the Value Chain and Category Management Impact
- Establishing the Process –Governance, Business Alignment, Organization, Team Structures, Readiness Tool
- Developing the Category Strategic Plan –5 Step Process and detailed questions to be answered in each
- Tools –Analysis, Stakeholder Alignment and Business Alignment, Risk Management
- Supplier Relationship Management - Selection, Management, Development
- Performance Management -Frameworks and tools

Brief Introduction

  • The Category Management process is a holistic approach to developing sourcing strategies for the enterprise. Category strategies have a critical impact on the entire enterprise from new product development, market penetration, risk management , performance, innovation and sustainability.

  • To develop the category strategy, one must understand the forces that surround the enterprise.
    Such forces are digital transformation, globalization, supplier infrastructure, disruptive events, climate change and sustainability, customer channels, cost of core technologies. We will begin at this point in the journey.

  • Before effective category strategies can be developed the enterprise must develop and operating model and governance. We will explore various best practices and review your company’s readiness for continuous improvement.

  • The strategy must ensure full alignment with the business. Techniques for obtaining this alignment will be shared and modeled.

  • When the foundation of understanding the value chain, creating or improving the operating model and ensuring company alignment we will begin to complete a category strategy. A five-step process will be detailed with corresponding tools to be utilized to develop.

  • Category Management’s effectiveness will be explored through a look at supplier relationship management, performance measurement and preferred customer criteria.

  • The session will be a working session in that a deliverable for each area discussed will be developed culminating with a baseline category strategy of your choice.


Session Methodology- basic preparation

  • Participants will be prepared with an understanding of markets participating in, competitors, strategic direction of the company and established enterprise supply chain processes.

  • Participant should select a category of spend that they would like to work on during the session. Basic information of spend, supply base, opportunities and risk should be developed.

  • A Maturity Path tool will be furnished prior to the sessions for the participant to complete a self evaluation.