I like variety. Some days I have an espresso, some days I feel like a latte, and some days I will have a cup of tea. So it pains me somewhat that the world seems to think that I, as a representative of the procurement function, am only capable of issuing RFPs.
I am also a fan of AT Kearney’s Purchasing Chessboard because of its simplicity and linear explosion to the full suite of options at the skilled procurement practitioner’s disposal. If you have not come across it, I recommend a visit to the interactive graphic ATK have built around this little idea.
TPC, quite simply, distils a relationship between supply and demand to the relative power balance of each into that perennial consultants’ tool, the 2×2 matrix. There are four possible strategies, depending on strength or weakness of buyer and supplier in the relationship. Each of these explodes into four further “levers” which, in turn, explode into four more “methods”. This gives a chessboard with a total of 64 possible methods that can be utilised in the relationship between buyer and supplier. Go take a look. And there you will find, sitting as but a single box, on the bottom right hand side, best deployed when there’s lots of competition and buyer power is strong, is the lonely little RFP, adrift in a sea of 63 other boxes in which procurement could operate. If only we looked around at the other options…
Time to think outside of the RFP box?