What if good supplier relations were the key to excellence?
When experts question the keys to Silicon Valley's success, they immediately reach the conclusion that the primary factor is linked to the ecosystem that is favourable to companies. The network, the ecosystem, the entrepreneurial environment, the fertile ground — these are essential notions for any company. For what would it be without its service providers and strategic suppliers?
Hiding subcontractors
This is a truth that nonetheless appears in few commercial brochures, since companies are not in the habit of advertising their subcontractors — sometimes they even prefer to hide them. Certainly, labels such as Swiss-made or Made in France are there to suggest a presumed link between quality and the origin of a product. But if the label is supposed to inform us about the origin of the company that assembled the product, nothing guarantees us the origin of its suppliers.
And yet every self-respecting company should not only be fully transparent about its suppliers but, beyond that, should actively use them to promote its products. For quality depends on the chain that unites all the partners. Each can master a competency, and it is the addition of these areas of know-how that creates the excellence of the whole. An exceptional piece of furniture, for example, will require the competency of a designer, a cabinetmaker, and a leather craftsman — and obviously, if it contains any degree of technological innovation, the engineer who designed it. Yet if it is complicated to succeed in surrounding oneself with the right competencies, it is equally complicated to maintain a quality partnership.
Supplier relationship directors
In all companies one finds HR directors — there should equally be SRDs: supplier relationship directors. This is indeed a full-time job to which one must devote the greatest energy. This relationship is not simply commercial or contractual — it rests on a foundation of shared values based on the demand for quality. Without this, no collaboration would be possible. Both parties must agree to respect total transparency, deadlines, and cost management. This relationship must then be tested over time: a long-term vision must be developed and the durability of the partnership worked on. A company that is satisfied with its suppliers must be able to bend over backwards for them and respond to their eventual needs — and why not, if they need it, come to their assistance.
It is at the cost of all these efforts, mutual concessions, and sometimes even sacrifices, that genuine trust between two partners is built. As a result, it becomes possible to raise both positive and negative subjects with suppliers. From this perspective, my experience within the company has shown me that one can only afford to criticise a supplier if, by the same token, one is capable of praising them. This is in fact how a mature client-supplier relationship can be recognised.
The complementarity of skills and the sharing of the same values are ultimately the keystone of this system — for they define the mutual need that binds companies to their suppliers within the same ecosystem. The competence of some, sustained by the demands of others, advances quality on a global scale. One then better understands why certain regions of the world assert themselves in preferred domains: California is a nursery of 2.0 start-ups, France a farm for quality agro-industry, and Switzerland a cradle of innovation. All these successes rest on the natural complementarity — the ecosystems — between companies and their suppliers.
What if good supplier relations were the key to excellence?
