Buying smart, and measuring total value rather than just price, is a popular concept right now. And for good reason, given the supply chain fragilities that the Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare.

Nonetheless, the automotive industry is one that's renowned for being particularly cutthroat in its often combative relationships with suppliers.

My guest on today's show, Dr. Gisela Linge, is a strategy consultant who has over 10 years of experience in the automotive industry. So, it's all the more relevant to talk to someone with her experience about how sourcing smart and collaborating with innovative startups can move the needle.

We discuss how some of the process and regulatory roadblocks can be removed to ensure procurement and R&D are able to work with the most innovative companies in the space without having their hands tied by impossible T&Cs, bureaucracy and book-length contracts.

2:09

I ask Gisela for a short intro of how she got into the space of strategy, specifically in procurement

5:18

Buying smart rather than buying cheap - how does it work in an industry that is as cutthroat as the automotive sector?

8:21

Do large organisations such as OEMs and Tier 1s actually have the self-awareness to see the opportunities of how they can benefit from working with startups, or do they require external help from consultancies to understand the lay of the land?

13:07

Will we as time goes on see a more open interface between ERP systems and individual apps offering specific solutions that can integrate with them?

15:27

We look at examples of where companies do have a strategy of working with smaller and more innovative startups, but can often become unstuck with the usual big company compliance and legal bureaucracy. This can prevent startups from getting a foothold into these organisations as vendors, so we look at how this could play out and what needs to change, including an example of how Gisela overcame this in a previous position she held.

19:20

We touch on one of my favourite topics - I promise I didn’t lead the conversation this way(!) - of pragmatism over rigid process and how there must be more flexibility within legal and internal audit departments to make these collaborations a success.

21:58

I ask Gisela her experiences of being able to convince legal colleagues to be more pragmatic, in the quest of being able to work with startups who don’t have the bandwidth to sign up to standard large corporation T&Cs and contractual requirements.

23:46

Exploring the opportunity of using risk management software to assess risk level of working with a specific vendor, and how this can be used to procurement’s advantage in preparing the business case to gain buy-in from Legal or any other sceptical internal business partners.

24:47

I ask Gisela for a tip for buyers who are struggling to get their stakeholders to agree to working with smaller startups to drive innovation.

Gisela's LinkedIn profile

Strategy Meets Reality website