Signs it's time
- Engineers are placing purchase orders and negotiating with suppliers directly
- Nobody can say what the company spends with its top 20 suppliers
- Every PO needs the CEO's approval, or none do
- You are about to hire your first Global Supply Managers and don't know what good looks like
- Savings are reported but never show up in the P&L
What we design
Structure. Category ownership (direct, indirect, CapEx), how sourcing works with engineering, quality, and program management, and where the function reports.
Roles and levels. Buyer, GSM, senior and lead GSM, and manager definitions with clear scope, so you can hire at the right level and pay at market.
Hiring. Interview loops, scorecards, and work samples for sourcing roles, built on the same rubric used in our career coaching practice. We can sit in on loops while your team learns it.
Process and controls. Approval matrices, sourcing decision records, supplier onboarding, and procure-to-pay flows that are light enough for a startup and solid enough for an audit.
KPIs. Cost-down measured against a baseline finance agrees with, plus supplier performance and coverage metrics that actually predict launch risk.
What you get
- Org chart and role definitions with level guides
- Hiring plan, interview loops, and scorecards
- Approval matrix and sourcing process documentation
- KPI definitions and a monthly reporting template