Great teams have one thing in common: they are working towards shared goals. But working together with people from within your organisation can be a challenge in itself, but when you decide to take the bold step and start working collaboratively with your supply base, a new set of challenges arises.
How can two businesses with different balance sheets and potentially different objectives start to collaborate in a manner that will enable each of them to be successful in their own right? Today I want to introduce the concept of a Statement of Intent and its role in collaborative supplier governance.
The Statement of Intent is a jointly developed document, agreed upon by those that will form the relationship governance team. The document, which should be developed at the start of collaborative supplier relationship, sets out the strategic objectives and desired outcomes of the relationship that will ensue. It spells out the strategic direction and objectives of what both parties hope to achieve and provides a fantastic reference point of team members to reflect back on when tough decisions regarding the relationship need to be made. Think of it kind of like constitution for your supplier relationship.
A well written Statement of Intent should be comprised of the following components.
We’ll be addressing each of these in more detail in blogs over the coming weeks, but you can find out more right now by downloading our free Governance Whitepaper.
Every relationship is unique, so it’s true that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a Statement of Intent. That being said, you’ll find some broad guidelines below that should be applied when creating your Statement of Intent. Doing so will ensure that your commercial relationships will remain successful, reliable and sustainable well into the future.
Published June 2016
