A COO told me something that changed how I work.
Four departments. Four agendas. Finance wants savings. Operations wants reliability. Quality wants specs. Nobody wants to change suppliers.
He wasn't describing a procurement problem. He was describing an alignment problem.
25 years. 130+ projects. He was right about 90% of them.
The supplier isn't blocking progress. Your organisation is.
Why This Changes Everything
Most procurement projects focus on the wrong target.
We prepare for supplier negotiations like they're the main event. Build business cases around market leverage and competitive tension.
Meanwhile, the project dies internally. Stakeholders miss deadlines. Requirements change mid-process. Approvals stall. By the time you reach the negotiation table, you've lost months and credibility.
Simple maths: internal alignment takes ~ 70% of project time. Supplier negotiation takes ~30 %. Which one should get 70% of your attention?
The Four Forces Blocking Your Projects
Every stalled sourcing project has at least one:
1. Conflicting success metrics
Finance measures savings. Operations measures uptime. Quality measures defects. Procurement measures completion. Metrics conflict. Stakeholders protect their own KPIs. A 10% cost reduction that risks 1% more downtime? Dies in committee.
2. Relationship protection
Stakeholders have relationships with current suppliers. Years of trust. Favours exchanged. Problems solved together. Asking them to switch? Asking them to start over. They'll resist. Often without saying why.
3. Change fatigue
Average business unit has been through multiple system changes. Org restructures. Disruptions. When procurement arrives with another change project, they see disruption, not value. Capacity for change is exhausted.
4. Information asymmetry
Stakeholders know things about suppliers that don't show in data. Emergency delivery last quarter. Payment flexibility during cash crunch. Engineer who answers calls at midnight. Value is real. Invisible to procurement analysis.
What Good Looks Like
Teams that consistently deliver work differently. More time on internal alignment than external negotiation.
- Map stakeholders before mapping spend. Who has influence? Information? Veto power? Who's affected by change? These questions come before category analysis.
- Build shared success metrics. Co-create metrics that reflect what everyone cares about. Total cost of ownership, not just unit price.
- Surface hidden objections early. Concerns that kill projects aren't stated in meetings. Create safe space for doubts before they become vetoes.
- Acknowledge relationship value. Don't dismiss stakeholder relationships as bias. Quantify service value. Include it in analysis. Sometimes incumbent deserves to win.
- Sequence for wins, not savings. First category isn't the biggest opportunity. It's the one most likely to succeed and build momentum.
The Stakeholder Alignment Path
How to fix internal alignment on your next project:
Step 1: Stakeholder mapping session (Week 1)
Before touching supplier data. Who decides? Who influences? Who implements? Who might block? Power/interest grid. 90 minutes. Saves months.
Step 2: Hypothesis validation meetings, not requirements gathering (Week 2)
Don't ask stakeholders what they need. Show what you've learned from data. Ask what you're missing. Positions you as curious, not presumptuous. Surfaces hidden information faster.
Step 3: Build RACI before strategy (Week 2)
Explicit accountability prevents implicit resistance. Document who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed for each decision. Get sign-off before proceeding.
Step 4: Create shared scorecards (Week 3)
Evaluation criteria should reflect what stakeholders value. Service metrics. Risk factors. Relationship value. Not just price. Makes final decision defensible.
Step 5: Pre-wire the recommendation (Week 4+)
Never surprise stakeholders with your recommendation. Socialise findings along the way. By every steering committee meeting, every key stakeholder already knows what you're recommending and why.
In Practice
PE portfolio company. Largest indirect category. Previous attempts stalled three times in two years. Each time, stakeholders found reasons to delay.
Category was complicated. Internal dynamics and supplier relationships even more.
First two weeks: stakeholder mapping, not spend analysis. Found three competing priorities. Two relationship-protection dynamics. Sacred cows syndrome.
Understood the internal terrain. Designed the project around it. Different evaluation criteria for different stakeholders. Go No zones and approaches defined to reduce switching and relationships risk. Weekly updates to the sceptical executives.
Result: decision in 12 weeks. $1.1M savings. Zero switch and zero implementation resistance.
Difference wasn't better negotiation. It was better alignment.
Quick Diagnostic: Where Are You Stuck?
For your current or next sourcing project:
1. Can you name the top 3 stakeholders who could block this project?
2. Do you know what each stakeholder values beyond price?
3.Have you documented who decides, who influences, who implements?
4.Are evaluation criteria co-created with stakeholders?
If you recommended a supplier switch tomorrow, would stakeholders be surprised?
Two or more "no"? Project at risk from internal forces, not supplier complexity.
Do This Monday
- Pick your most stalled sourcing project
- List every stakeholder who has touched or blocked it
- For each: what do they value that isn't being measured?
That gap is usually where the project is stuck.
Want the Stakeholder Alignment Canvas I use to map these dynamics?
Reply to this email with "STAKEHOLDER" and I'll send it over.
What internal blocker killed your last sourcing project? Hit reply. I've probably seen it before.