Profit From The Source: Transforming Your Business by Putting Suppliers at the Core

by Christian Schuh, Wolfgang Schnellbacher, Alenka Triplat

In most companies, procurement is an unglamorous, unloved part of the business. A job in the procurement office? A fast track to nowhere. Sourcing and supplier management is strictly about costs, the thinking goes, and all that matters is playing hardball to get these as low as possible. No connection to innovation or strategy or creating positive value.

Not so fast. As Boston Consulting Group thought leaders Christian Schuh, Wolfgang Schnellbächer, Alenka Triplat, and Daniel Weise explain in Profit from the Source, procurement should be regarded in a new light, because it has the potential to be a CEO's secret weapon in these fast-moving, disruptive times. The authors offer a wake-up call and a new strategic blueprint to leaders everywhere. With vivid stories and in-depth case studies, they illustrate that no other business function offers the same holistic view of a company—from suppliers who provide the organization with raw materials and components through to consumers who buy the finished product. While it's true that a core task of any procurement function is to stop costs spiraling out of control, the authors show how it can help businesses generate phenomenal value from five other sources of competitive advantage that are critical to success—innovation, quality, sustainability, speed, and risk reduction.

Drawing on BCG research and the authors' firsthand experience working with some of the world's leading companies—in high tech, automotive, consumer goods, and many other industries—Profit from the Source provides proven strategies to drive new bottom-line, and top-line, growth for your company.

Genres: Business

256 pages, Hardcover

Published June 21, 2022

About the author

Christian Schuh is a trained engineer with degrees in aeromechanics and artificial intelligence (doctorate) from TU Graz. After three years at Unilever, he joined A.T. Kearney in 1995. His career in consulting has taken him to exciting places like NASA's Johnson Space Center and mega-factories in China with more than 300,000 workers. He spent many years advising car makers in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Brazil and the US and is more recently focusing on high tech firms in the US and in Taiwan.

He is best known for his books The Purchasing Chessboard and The CPO and is currently launching two new books, one on Supplier Relationship management with Michael Strohmer, Stephen Easton Mike Hales and Alenka Triplat and another one on Corporate Plasticity with Laurent Chevreux, Wim Plaizier, Wayne Brown and Alenka Triplat.

He lives in the historic center of Vienna, Austria.

Reviews

[Jose Torroja Ribera]

Ideas muy interesantes para el departamento de compras.

[Nuno Gomes]

Great book and an essential read for every executive wanting to embark on a real company transformation. Well written and structured around key principles CPOs and CEOs should follow, suggest examples from several industries to put the ideas into practice.

[Gianluca Strafile]

Libro divulgativo interessante su supply chain e logistica. Terminato durante un periodo di studi per approfondire gli argomenti di un esame affine. I concetti sono molto semplici e spiegati da esempi pratici di manager di aziende intervistate. Il testo rimane di facile comprensione anche per persone che non sono ferrate, richiedendo giusto qualche nozione base di organizzazione aziendale. Tutto sommato un testo di piacevole lettura non necessariamente impegnativo.

[Shino Jacob]

The most complete account on approaching suppliers and achieving profitability.

[Bob at 1800AskBob . Com]

This is a great point of view with validity.

[Erlend Dahlen]

Procurement <3