Mirror, mirror on the wall... Let suppliers guide you towards improvement

Suppliers may have a major impact on a firm's performance. The limitations of "traditional" buyer-supplier relationships are becoming more widely recognised. Co-operative relationships between suppliers and customers are attracting a lot of attention in today's business environment. Eurotel, a large European manufacturer, is currently making many efforts to improve the way it works with suppliers. One of the initiatives is a Global Supplier Survey. For the first time, Eurotel asked its key suppliers to make suggestions for improvement. The results are challenging and confirm that the majority of the Eurotel organisation is far from perfect at managing supplier relationships. According to their suppliers, there is still much room for improvement in forecasting, communication, providing feedback and teamworking. Translating these suggestions into positive action will be a real challenge for most Eurotel businesses.