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P. 9 But what if we aligned “buying responsibly” and “buying cheaply” is not new, as the to be reinvented, it is more pressing than ever to consolidate
Observatoire des achats responsables (ObsAr) already noted in
ourselves correctly? this article published by Décision-achats.fr in 2019. partnerships between buyers and suppliers, by tackling a new
issue - crises. “The resilience of supply chains depends above
In May 2018, another article published on supplier-experience. all on the resilience of individuals,” notes the Démeter club. At
com fundamentally admitted that conflicting directives a time when everyone is tired of Covid, it is these individuals
What is happening in many companies at the moment are an integral part of the procurement department. It who need to be taken care of.
can actually be described as a problem of alignment. provided psychological solutions. It was all about the buyer’s
There is a huge dissonance between the rhetoric of communication style with the supplier. The study conducted P. 15 our take
commitment, of CSR, and the immediate practices, at the time identified three styles. The understanding style;
especially in buyer-seller dealings. We are totally out of the authoritarian and competitive style; and the relational and
alignment. neutral style (ideally suited to long-term partnerships). The intensity with which the question of “contradictory
It seems to be going in a zig-zag pattern. directives” is once again being raised in the world of
There is a feeling that “everything that is said is false”, The best was the “understanding style having a special purchasing at the moment is reminiscent of Alain Souchon’s one to another with the casual agility of a tightrope walker. The
“trust is betrayed”. In the context of supply shortages and sensitivity for buyers regarding changing situations and the feeling when he sings: “You have to understand how we are statement on the Eyrolles page about this new book is correct:
the return of inflation, contradictory directives are back ability to use a variety of persuasive tactics”. addressed”. this perception affects everything.
in force. Premonition Emotionally, it takes its toll.
The sort that drive you crazy. The article was a premonition. This is exactly the attitude that But in essence, it’s not so much a question of relationships Who said ... ?
was needed during the Covid crisis when both emergencies between people who perform complementary roles. It is Frédéric Fréry, one of the authors, has chosen an excellent
In the world of procurement, this is not something new. and supply disruptions had to be managed. Last July, important to realise that it is this type of relationship, the approach. At a time when there is a feeling that everything
It is a real challenge for procurement departments to the Démeter club, which brings together 27 responsible ‘buyer-seller’ relationship that is currently the focus of the main is moving faster, he puts this perception of time to the test of
win over strategic suppliers in order to win over their supply chain professionals, examined the question of components of the current crisis. time, in other words, the test of history. Did our ancestors have
customers while reducing costs and managing risks. sustainable resilience in supply chains. In the end, like others before it, this crisis fits the criteria of a much “cool” perception of the passing of time?
This is what makes this department so strategic for a Resilience is precisely what made the difference for many what has been called the VUCA world. The new normal of “Not at all,” he replies.
company. This makes the department an essential lever companies during the crisis. The definition of the term is the things: V as in volatile, U as in uncertain, C as in complex (cause “Who is the author of these articles?” he asks.
for the implementation of the overall strategy and effect replaced by interdependence), A as in ambiguous “In the past, events that happened in the world were not
Solving this problem has led to the success of sustainable way in which companies need to rethink their processes to get (everything and its opposite happen at the same time). interrelated. Now they are all connected to each other. Elon
procurement in recent years. However, we seem to be through prolonged disruptions. Instead of inventing new ways of talking to each other with Musk? Obama? No. It is Polybius, a Greek historian of the
losing our way in the short term and in the middle of a The club conducted a study on the subject. Most respondents undue rigidity, it is better to concentrate on what you have just second century BC.
crisis. Inevitably, things get heated during a storm. How insisted on the importance of flexible organisations that learned. Not just about the health crisis, but about the crisis
can we bring a little bit of alignment back into this? cooperate across the supply chain. It is a question of mastering itself. The crisis will take on different facets and will bring new What about the idea that business during the thirty glorious
Certainly not by allowing the idea of taking a step innovative tools for pooling and optimising means of variables to the fore (for example, the difficulty of recruiting at years when everyone was driven by growth was a long, quiet
backwards but rather, it is essential to analyse things in transport, which often go beyond the limits of companies. this time) river? “Observers at the time did not have the feeling that they
terms of adding even more responsibility to sustainable 30% of respondents plan to relocate productions. 41% say that Agility, solidarity in the supply chain and increasingly refined were living in placid times at all.
procurement. A new variable that the software used just-in-time delivery will be profoundly disrupted. analysis of the full cost: what if we had never been so well Alvin Toffler once said, “Change is striking us with
by the procurement department had not yet taken equipped to buy properly? unprecedented force yet most of us are ridiculously
sufficiently into account is suddenly on the scene: Spirit of the times unprepared for it.” Frédéric Fréry claims that not only is the
uncertainty. This is why feedback from those who have Everything is happening as if there were a change in the spirit Marie-Pierre Bachelet acceleration of time an old idea, but it is also a false one.
been able to cope is needed rather than the rising voices Editor-in-chief of this issue,
of those who act in panic. of the times with regard to the very notion of ‘responsible’ in
2022. False idea
It is no longer just a matter of planning CSR strategies the way P.16 IS EVERYTHING GETTING Are technologies making their presence felt more quickly?
it was before the crisis, but rather of working enthusiastically Electric cars have been around since 1834 yet they only
to build trusting partnerships with long-term suppliers and to FASTER? A COGNITIVE BIAS account for 2% of sales. The videophone dates back to 1964.
By contrast, railways were introduced in Europe between 1820
co-construct more sustainable and committed schemes. and 1840 (20 years) and the transcontinental line was built in
P.13 Contradictory It also involves pooling resources to manage crisis situations the USA in ... 6 years only (how many for a TGV today?). It took
directives (following) such as shortages and inflation. Is everything moving faster? Is time speeding up? This is not Tesla 12 years to reach the milestone of one million vehicles
just a coffee shop claim. This idea can be found in the speeches
For some companies, the tools proved strategic during
of many leaders as well as in some academic works. Frédéric sold. But only 7 to Henry Ford for his Ford T. In fact, the best
the most difficult part of the crisis. Those companies that way to think of acceleration is that of “punctuated equilibrium”.
One of these suppliers closed down despite being an were ahead of the curve in terms of data and had efficient Fréry, a professor at ESCP Business School, disagrees. In a Change is not always linear. On the contrary, it is a matter
industrial power house and a model in terms of digitalisation. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were more collective volume, “Le temps dans tous ses états”, he studies of gradual stages, where phases of stability are marked by
The managers were frustrated and left the business. It is quite resilient to stock-outs than others. the vision of time that we had... in the past! sudden transformations.
traumatic to see this happen. » For other companies, the restoration of stocks has averted
These examples show how much solidarity is needed in a the damage caused by the maximum just-in-time approach. The perception of time that each of us has is not neutral.
supply chain that continues to be in a state of turmoil. Rather than playing “who was the smartest”, this is the time to It affects our attitudes. “Some people prefer strict time
planning and hierarchies, while other people feel a dull and
Is this the right time to push for short-term price cuts or to reflect on all these past experiences and to work more closely constant urgency of this time that is running out whatever the
demand the impossible from these suppliers? than ever with your suppliers. At a time when everything has circumstances. Others perform multiple tasks, navigating from
Admittedly, the problem of contradictory directives between