“ If I then look back through the supply chain to the key suppliers that I have , can I get the relationship between me and my key suppliers to the point where they want their strategy to align with mine ? If we ’ ve got all of that kind of strategic alignment and those different thought processes going on , then the ability for people to deliver value is going to be much higher than if it was independent businesses with their own strategies trying to supply things for you .”
Teamwork makes the dream work – or as legendary luxury hotelier and entrepreneur Horst H . Schulze once stated : “ In life and business , relationships are important – but they are empty unless they are established and based upon trust .” When it comes to the creation of value chains , that has never been truer . It requires all parties to be honest and transparent and operate fairly and ethically , with the benefits of the customer at the forefront of their thinking .
Obviously creating value impacts positively on margins and that can only be a good thing , but it requires the buy-in of all stakeholders . Snowden reckons it ’ s right for companies to be wary of trust potentially backfiring but he also says it ’ s an area where businesses often lack maturity . “ If companies don ’ t actually understand the market place and they ’ re firefighting , then there ’ s no time for them to lift their head up and say , ‘ what are we doing wrong ? And what can we do to put it right ? And how do we align that to what we ’ ve got in the marketplace ?’ That is very often part of the problem . When companies are much better at performing ,
“ In life and business , relationships are important – but they are empty unless they are established and based upon trust ”
HORST H . SCHULZE Luxury hotelier and entrepreneur
70 June 2018