Profitable Purchasing Strategies: A Manager's Guide for Improving Organizational Competitiveness Through the Skills of Purchasing

Understanding how best to buy resources-from whom and when-is crucial to the long-term profitability and survival of organizations both large and small. Profitable Purchasing Decisions helps managers incorporate strategic decision making into their purchasing tactics. They'll gain valuable insights into supply positioning, suppliers' preferences, and vulnerability management and learn how to work with partners in outsourcing supplies, manage relationships with internal and external suppliers, influence the supply market, and perform performance audits and benchmarking. The practical focus on maintaining clear lines of communication at key levels insures the quality teamwork needed to produce positive, tangible results.

In an ever-changing business environment, competition, scarce resources and commercial profit are forcing organizations to re-evaluate the way they conduct their operations. As a result, fundamental shifts of emphasis are having a major impact within the corporate structure. Profitable Purchasing Strategies tackles the questions that could face you and your organization and provides constructive solutions to accommodate this change. From understanding what a purchasing strategy is, to discovering who should buy and how to buy for the long and short term, the book will inspire you to apply this knowledge to your own business. Real-life examples have put the theory to the test, including companies such as Esso, Glaxo, National Westminster Bank, Cable and Wireless and Cathay Pacific among others. Dispelling the myth that bigger is better, Paul Steele and Brian Court do not just dwell on large international organizations, they provide comprehensive strategic insight for the smaller business to compete successfully as an equal with major corporations. Whether you are in the public or private sector, Profitable Purchasing Strategies enables you to make the right decisions to achieve better leverage for securing deals in a competitive world. From the consultancy group which wrote the best-selling It's A Deal, the leading negotiation handbook, this book manages to combine strategy with practical application, enabling you to get the most from your purchasing budget.