Sourcing maturity

A while back, I talked about inexperienced practitioners and more recently about professionalism in sourcing. Some conversations this week also got me thinking about the unbalanced level of maturity that exists across the sourcing industry.

In sports, we recognize the difference between amateurs and professionals, as well as between beginners and experienced players. The unpredictability of some amateur competitions brings a degree of excitement that is fantastic as a fan, and the high quality of some professional competitions leaves us wondering how people developed such strong skills. At a more personal level, I often recall my coaches telling me to focus on the basics rather than worry about all the fancy moves I wanted to try (admittedly, I was never going to be a star).

The excitement and unpredictability that we like in sports is often far less welcomed in business, yet how many times does one see people ignoring the basics and trying to focus on the esoteric issues. I'm not talking about true professionals who have mastered the basics so that they're second nature and always well dealt with, I'm talking about the people who are relatively inexperienced.

Describing some of the basics (such as knowing what you get for the price) is a topic itself better left for another blog.

Returning to the sporting analogy, what happens when one pits some amateurs against the professionals. Sometimes you get an upset which is great to see but more typically you see a clinical win by the professionals. Although we recognize this in the sporting arena, how often is the same mismatch played out in the sourcing industry?

Just this week, I dealt with the professional buyer and the amateur service provider as well as the amateur buyer and the professional service provider--both with the predictable outcome. I also dealt with an amateur buyer and service provider and that was the most interesting--how to help them create something reasonably consistent with the marketplace that is also reasonable for both parties.

All this leaves me wondering, given the growing use of sourcing, how we can work within our industry to reduce the mismatches that occur due to different levels of experience and maturity of the participants. What do you think?

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Michael Rehkopf

Michael has more than 20 years of experience in operations, strategy and sourcing covering all major parts of the globe. He has also worked for Australian, Canadian, German and Japanese companies in both business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing.
Michael's industry experience includes the financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and travel sectors. He leverages this diverse industry experience and his university background in accounting, IT and his Master of Dispute Resolution, to assist clients in the development of business strategies and the implementation of sourcing strategies. These include the associated evaluation, negotiation and organizational change.
Michael is currently a partner at TPI, the world's oldest and largest sourcing advisory firm. Prior to joining TPI, Michael held leadership positions with Siemens Business Services, OpenPlus International, Mitsubishi Electric and Netron.