And that got me thinking...
I've seen a lot of instances where purchasing professionals solicit donations from their suppliers. Educational institutions asking for supplier donations to scholarship funds. Professional association members asking for supplier donations to their golf outings. Individual purchasers asking for supplier donations to their walk-a-thons.
I have opinions on this topic, but am interested to know what you think about the following questions:
- Is supplier donation solicitation truly professional practice?
- Is it a breach of courtesy or even ethics?
- Does it put undue pressure on suppliers to part with their money?
- Is there a covert "or else" implied when soliciting donations?
- Can this lead to higher costs for goods and services for your organization if the supplier notices a pattern?
I'm waiting to hear from you...
And, oh, if you're in the vendor community, I'd like to hear from you, too, regarding how you feel about getting solicited for donations by buyers.
To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
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4 comments:
No matter what the context, it always feels a bit on the morally questionable side. Each of my various employers have had different approaches on solicitations like this, but no policies you put in place can take away the subtle stigma of "begging" (even when it's for a good cause). One policy that has been agreed upon by all my employers is this: If you are in the middle of negotiations or you know you are about to begin a bidding process with a particular supplier, asking for donations of any kind is strictly prohibited.
Personally, I know we spend quite a bit of time in my corporation fighting to get others to follow internal policies and pay attention to the procurement procedures. Asking for handouts from suppliers like this somehow seems like temporarily suspending our own underlying goals, ethics, and standards just to get a gift card to Target, an iPod for an auction, or a koozie to fill a goodie swag bag..........
Is it truly professional practice? Depends on how the request is made.
Is it a breach of courtesy or even ethics? Yes, because it can "put undue pressure on suppliers."
Is there a covert "or else" implied when soliciting donations? Depends on how the supplier views our request.
Can this lead to higher costs for goods and services? Sure. Price=Cost+Margin. If you increse Cost you change Price, Margin or both.
Is it truly a professional practice?
That depends on how the request made. For example there companies who officially request from suppliers to donate funds/gifts etc for their talent activities.Some people's point of view, that it will help to promote the relationship between both parties. But in my openion that is not professional.
For the second and third questions my answer is Yes.
Is there a covert " or else" implied when soliciting donations?
That depends on how the supplier reacts to the request.
For the last I would say that will not effect the price but for the performance of the suppleirs. Becuase the prices are pen to negociate or might be fixed on a contractual basis.
Thanks for chiming in M. Mundahl, Ben, and Anonymous. All of you shared some insightful comments.
It seems that the overall feeling is that soliciting supplier donations is questionable and how well it works out often depends on a lot of factors such as timing and how the request is made.
My personal feeling, which I withheld in my post, is just that it is not a good business practice. It really can make a supplier uncomfortable and may present the perception that your loyalty is being bought.
While I personally don't think that most cases rise to the level of an ethical violation, I think that requesting supplier donations is questionable enough to avoid as a matter of courtesy.
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