It’s time for a new approach and mindset for contract negotiations—time to leave the me-first, I-win-you-lose strategy and replace it with a highly collaborative approach when structuring partnerships. What if the agreement you negotiated was more than just a...
Traditionally, buying companies seek to limit their risk exposure by diversifying their vendor pool. But if all vendors in an industry face the same challenge to keep costs in check, for example rising wages, it is time to do something differently. The answers lay in...
Q: Getting to We is a book about negotiating, but you say it is more than a traditional negotiation book. How is it different? A: Hundreds of books have been written on negotiation strategies and tactics such as Getting to Yes, Getting Past No, Getting More and even...
Help from their service providers to develop a solid strategy to seriously reduce costs and waste. If providers don’t take the lead on directing cost reduction, providers should expect further commoditization. I just spent one week in Scotland working with one of the...
According to the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), buyers are 57% through their buying process (gathering information and determining specifications and requirements) before reaching out to suppliers. The remaining 43% of the buyers’ time is devoted to the RFP process,...
The “cheap and cheerful” cost cutting train has left the station and it is not coming back anytime soon. I firmly believe that companies and organizations that think an outsource provider can provide easy cost cutting measures are standing at the wrong train platform....
Innovation transforms something, whether a process or a machine. It is more than an incremental improvement—saving “fingers and toes” worth of time, effort or money. Many companies, if not all, claim that they want their supplier pool to bring them innovative ideas....
I lost big playing a negotiation game at the University of Tennessee. My team was caught off guard by our opponents’ tactics. Our opponents were “playing not to lose.” HUH? I play to win. I thought everyone played to win. The other team were wolves in sheep’s...
A stunning 45% of the time neither suppliers nor their customers realized the anticipated value from the relationship. This according to an IACCM study. Wow. That is almost like flipping a coin! What was wrong? One reason, the parties focused solely on price, thereby...
Did you know that 57% of employees who say that they are looking for a new job are doing so because they think they could earn more money at another company? Salary.com conducted a random survey and reported that more than half of those surveyed said that were looking...
