This book applies strategic decision making to the buying of resources in organisations. Aimed primarily at those in smaller organisations, it includes advice on how to work with partners in sourcing supplies and coping with external suppliers.

Understanding how best to buy, from whom and when, is crucial to an organization's long-term success. This guide shows how to implement ideas that should benefit the profitability of an enterprise. It emphasizes the need for communication at key levels to ensure good teamwork and tangible results.

Improving your organization's profitability can only be achieved in three ways: increase prices, increase sales volumes or reduce costs. Competitive pressures are making the first two options increasingly difficult, which leaves cost reduction as the key option available. Profitable Buying Strategies shows you a long term, structured approach to cost reduction through smart procurement practices. This straightforward guide explains the philosophy and psychology of buying; buying concepts, tools and techniques; changes that deliver cost reduction; market testing; outsourcing and insourcing; negotiation and the legal aspects; e-procurement; and organizational issues. A plethora of case studies, and appendices outlining the successful cost reduction drives of a number of major organizations, give you a real world explanation of cost reduction and procurement options to help you make your enterprise more profitable.

How is it possible to sell a kitchen at 30 per cent below market price? Why are hot dogs cheaper in IKEA than in the supermarket? How can IKEA sell the Lack table at half the price it was when it was launched 35 years ago and how can it be achieved with a substantial profit? Strategic Sourcing and Category Management examines how IKEA - and other cost leading companies - use category management to create advantages with direct and indirect sourcing. With 25 years' experience from IKEA, where he had the responsibility to develop and execute the company's purchasing strategy, author Magnus Carlsson shares his insights on important topics: when category management is profitable and why; how teams repeatedly create value and results; what the main approaches are in different categories; how a company implements category management; the difference between success and failure. In this new edition of Strategic Sourcing and Category Management, Magnus Carlsson has added new themes including examples and references from companies such as Maersk, Carlsberg, P&G and Aldi, illustrating the application of cost leadership that spans far beyond IKEA. Even there, the cost leadership lessons are not limited to home furnishings as the company is sourcing categories such as food, components, materials, transports and indirect materials, with a total purchasing spend of approximately €7 billion. But maybe even more importantly, the book illustrates how teams create value by thinking differently and asking the right questions, allowing an understanding that goes beyond mere tools and processes.

Procurement can be your company's secret weapon for winning in turbulent times. 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 for 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 to consumers who buy the finished product. While it's true that a core task of any procurement function is to keep costs from spiraling out of control, the authors show how procurement can help businesses generate phenomenal value from five other sources of competitive advantage 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, as well as top-line, growth for your company.

Most organizations, regardless of industry, spend more money on suppliers than they do on employing their staff. Written for the non-procurement expert, Strategic Procurement explores the 'why' and 'what' of good procurement rather than the 'how.' It explains why you should focus your efforts on this previously neglected area of business and rich rewards, where P&L impact is relatively painless and immediate, where benefit to cost ratios of 10 to 1 are realistic ambitions and in-year payback is possible. It covers all the aspects of strategic procurement, including The role of the executive and the organization in procurement; Primary and secondary supply chains; Cost reduction techniques Making yourself important to suppliers; Sustaining procurement improvement; Keeping procurement on the business agenda Showing you how to cut costs without harming your business and the importance of recognizing supplier relationship management, Strategic Procurement offers real understanding of the true worth of procurement in the boardroom.

For many organizations, the best option for improving profits is to reduce costs. This handbook presents a long-term, structured approach to cost reduction through smart procurement practices. It provides readers with a thorough understanding of the philosophy, psychology, and practice of buying.