IACCM recently asked its members to nominate the companies that they admire most for their negotiation capabilities. This worldwide survey resulted in the nomination of hundreds of companies with the top 100 being selected through the process.
You can access the results of the IACCM Top Companies in Negotiation 2009 Report through the Interactive Viewer below.
In the meantime, and while I have not had the opportunity to comb through the results beyond an initial review, a number of findings caught my immediate attention.
For example, the automotive industry has long been viewed as the trailblazers in supply chain automation and practice (including contract negotiation) having spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to achieve optimal efficiency. An efficiency that for the most part, has been as elusive to catch as the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Perhaps this is the reason why the sector represents just 1 percent of all survey respondents.
The paucity of response notwithstanding, The Ford Motor Company was ranked higher than the only other automaker to crack the top 100 list, Toyota. Put aside the fact that they even made the list at all, let alone securing the 25th spot, finishing ahead of Toyota (No. 29) from a Buy Side negotiation standpoint is difficult to fathom.
While the objective of this report is to bring attention to a critically important area of the supply chain rather than “applauding a set of winners,” even IACCM “were surprised by some of the companies nominated by the membership.” So much so that they have “started to explore why they made these assessments.”
Another interesting observation is that effective negotiation is not viewed as an adversarial battle of wills where one party triumphs (re get’s their way) over the other in the form of an uneven and non-sustainable contract.
Even though there is a general belief that “flexibility is the most important characteristic of good negotiations,” based on the rankings and corresponding results IACCM concluded that the quality of planning was actually considered to be the most important.
The reason given is that quality planning provides each party with the confidence that the other knows what they are doing, have the authority to act and ultimately fulfill the terms of the negotiated contract.
Once again, this is just my preliminary response. Over the next few days I will delve deeper into both the report and the company rankings and get back to you with any additional observations.
Once again, remember to use the Interactive Viewer to access the report in its entirety.
Interactive Viewer:
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Procurement Insights 
Posted on October 12, 2009
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