Creating a Cooperative Vendor Relationship

by Ditka Reiner

Relationships with suppliers have undergone a significant transformation in the past few years. As the shift to strategic management of the acquisition lifecycle for third-party services grows, so does the emphasis on how to manage those relationships. Many companies refer to their supplier relationships as "partnerships." Merriam-Webster defines partnership as "a legal relation existing between two or more persons contractually associated as joint principals in a business." In many ways, this definition does not apply to a supplier relationship; your supplier is not really a joint principal in your business. A more accurate description might be the idea of an alliance defined as "an association to further the common interests of its members."