Sustainable Supply Chain Management: When You Are Not Wal-Mart

Tremendous opportunities lie within the supply chain to evaluate risk and sustainable development opportunities. Take for instance, the game changing practices that companies like Wal-Mart are currently making in the supply chain. Innovative – yes. But, how does a business make sustainable change in the supply chain when your company is not a Wal-Mart?

Traditionally when we think of supply chain management, our thoughts often focus on “big business” reference points. Companies like GE or Dell regularly come to mind. However in the larger context of the supply chain, these companies represent a small segment of buyers that have a unique and overwhelming buying power .

Most of the companies we work with in our sustainability consulting practice represent the larger population of businesses that lack the supply chain stroke of a large buyer like Wal-Mart. Without this tremendous influence to modify supplier behavior through pure necessity, we find many businesses have to bring their supplier stakeholders to the table before setting supplier guidelines and procurement policy.

Within our professional consulting in building business sustainability, we find that smaller organizations actually have to be “more” actively involved in their supply chain to implement sustainable change. We find many small business leaders actively engaged in:

•    Strategic Sustainable Sourcing: Actively seeking out desired criterion and qualities in suppliers.

•    Supplier Management and Development: Actively engaged with business partners to create a mutually defined aligned direction.

•    Supplier Performance Management: Actively engaged in daily changes in supply quality strategic partners and day-to-day procurement.

Creating sustainable business relationships for most companies requires more active involvement to capture the business sustainability benefits that undoubtedly exist within the supply chain. At Taiga Company, our professional consulting and small business resources encourage collaborative stakeholder engagement in the supply chain to create sustainability alignment and ensure the most effective results.