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Sustainable Supply Chain Value Through the Right Deals with the Right Trading Partners

A propos de nous - en français

What we do

We coach executives and their companies to execute complex commercial deals:

The RIGHT deals with the RIGHT trading partners.

Why are we different?

Over 40 years of executive and consulting experience across most industries in 15 countries and 4 languages, and across private/public/not-for-profit sectors:

I see many opportunities to take ideas from adjacent situations and put them to work in your organization.

I understand Finance, Commercial Relationships, Operational Realities, Implementation Challenges, and I have worked both sell-side and buy-side extensively. I get the job done on time, on budget and on spec.

Why it works

I am a Supply Chain coach – Procurement & Selling, Contracting, Negotiating, and Logistics. Being able to see how these work together avoids ideas that would not really ever succeed, or adapt them to make them viable, and engage a broad stakeholder set to build momentum. A strong project management and risk management track record means the plans are realistic, comprehensive, and consider most challenges that may arise. Tenacity and work ethic get the job done.

How it works

You have a challenging commercial relationship. You reach out and we discuss confidentially if and how I could help. We work out a support plan and budget. We monitor effectiveness, results, and value. That might include coaching or facilitating:

A Deal review: how well is a current deal/relationship working, where are the issues or opportunities. A neutral third party hears and understands things that staff in the thick of day-to-day operations may miss. We may use certain relationship assessment tools, such as the the

Vested® template.

Working out what kind of Deal makes sense: Often in the form one or more facilitated workshops using/adapting the templates from Strategic Sourcing in the New Economy to articulate the economic and relationship/risk profiles, with or without the trading partner, to ensure alignment and highlight differences for resolution.

Evaluating the market for the best fit and capabilities: who are the players that could help you achieve your objectives, and are their approaches compatible with what and how you want to do?·

Articulating the Right Deal: Building on the understanding of what is being planned, why it is worthwhile, and how the players are expected to interact, writing down the reasoning and assumptions provides a solid basis for extensive stakeholder consultation before too much has been spent, or too onerous commitments have been made.

Selecting the Right Trading Partner in a competitive or single-source environment involves engaging to assure personal and cultural compatibilities, alignment on objectives, scope, requirements, governance, compensation/economic model, approaches to risk management, and identification of any Deal killers. From formal Vested® RFPartner® discipline to facilitated joint workshops, a variety of tools can be used to drive effectiveness with speed.

Finalizing the Deal by filling in the contracting details as well as exit planning once the relationship has run its course.

Implementing the Deal through start-up and stabilization

Living into the Deal, including baselining and making governance work over the long term. A critical element is onboarding new players as change inevitably moves people around. Understanding the Deal, how it works, how it has evolved, are essential for any new staff.

Ongoing Deal maintenance keeps the relationship working at its best and may involve Deal reviews, relationship assessments, and the use of a Standing Neutral relationship coach on an ongoing basis.

Developing a competency and knowledge map with a curriculum to ensure the various players have the right knowledge and skills to perform. Also used for onboarding.

Important Note: Vested® service marks, trade names, trade dress and related intellectual property are the property of Vested Outsourcing Inc. When delivering Vested services, we work with an accredited Vested Centre of Excellence (CoE).

We help reach the Right Deals

We coached one of the finalist bidders on this health authority facilities management Vested® RFPartner® bid, preparing the bid team for the workshops and helping shape the bid response win themes.

We worked with this large public sector procurement organization to identify, spec, scope, define and then deliver an AI initiative to assess their current contracting practice and guide an approach to efficient and effective contracting on the basis of 80,000 recently written contracts. We agreed on better contracting principles that drove less exception handling and shorter cycle times.

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We help you understand your supply chain business

We analyzed the $3B spend, developed 88 major category strategies, developed a workplan and staffing model, re-engineered the processes, developed an eProcurement strategy, and implemented a new engagement model across the major spending ministries and central procurement at this large provincial government.

We developed a cost-to-serve model for a major consumer goods manufacturer, allowing them to determine which channels and which customers were profitable, and which to phase out. We also developed a model to assess potential new business to assist in sales and pricing strategy

Case Studies

RFPartner® Competitive Complex Services Procurement

We have coached several incumbent suppliers in RFPartner® bids for outsourced services.

One deal was worth an estimated $500m lifecycle spend. After a successful conversion and many years of successful service delivery, this service was rebid as a Vested® deal using the RFPartner® methodology.

We provided support through the whole RFPartner® cycle. As coach to the deal team, we serve as the experts and advisors to the bid team to ensure the proposed agreement is consistent with the Vested principles and deliverables standards.We reviewed alignment using Vested surveys, including Getting to WE®, to assess current relational challenges and perceptions.We reviewed the bid win themes and client understanding of Vested® to ensure they were consistent.We collaborated in the design of the workshops, goals, agenda, content, timing.We reviewed content as it was being developed and provided advice on focus and messaging.We advised on content and ran dress-rehearsals to ensure smooth delivery and appropriate emphasis of content.We assessed the cost model and provided guidance on maximum service delivery margin, incentives structuring and the treatment of the overhead expenses, (identifying which of the overhead expenses should be designated as direct service delivery costs and which should be bundled as part of the management fee), to ensure the cost model supported the achievement of the Desired Outcomes.

We reviewed submission documents to ensure they were consistent with the Vested® principles and practices.Throughout, we provided Vested content training and clarification where required

Comprehensive Procurement Transformation: Retail & Service Organization

As the lead consultant, Subject Matter Expert, and Project Manager on this comprehensive procurement transformation at a former Federal Agency in the Transportation space with $400m spend, including complex services and construction, led the project from start to finish.

We started with an APQC™ process benchmark, developed a relevant a Capability Maturity Model and performed a Capability Maturity Assessment, conducted interviews and workshops/focus groups with the executives, middle management and front line staff within Purchasing and their clients, supplier interviews, a review of previous bids, the development of a current state service delivery model, the assessment of the procurement Risk Management, the templates and Terms and Conditions, and of course a spend analysis of what they buy from whom ...

We facilitated the workshops for the Future State design, with a streamlined Risk Management & Authorities process (they now use a standardized set of questions to qualify risk and complexity to make sure the right people are at the table), clarified roles & responsibilities, streamlined processes, articulated commodity strategies that the business believes in, a comprehensive set of performance metrics to manage the Procurement function, and a comprehensive staff education and development plan. The T&Cs are being revised to be easier to read and more equitable, and all procurement work is planned in a Resource Planning Tool that holds a milestone plan and resource plan for each procurement project.

This full scope project has been an excellent consolidation of our experience in Procurement Transformation, at a large Provincial government, a major gaming & entertainment company, a major North American cell phone manufacturer, two very different large base metals manufacturers, two air services companies, and a number of broader public sector initiatives.

Corporate Supply Chain Manager, International Operations, Major Copper Miner

As the newly appointed corporate Supply Chain Manager with a $2B+ spend, Nick drove targeted strategic sourcing initiatives across the spend at the mines in Canada, Chile and the US.

US and Canada Fuel & Lubricants

Nick led the competitive bidding of the consolidated volumes, supporting the local Supply Chain managers to finalize the requirements and then negotiating the agreement so the contracts could be approved by management and executed at the site. In the largest site, cost reductions and significant improvements in fuel filtering and purity, local site equipment, and arbitrage between 3 different sources to optimize fuel prices were secured on a $50m+ spend/year.

US and Canada Explosives

Nick led the consolidation of spend and competitive bidding, then led the negotiations alongside the local supply chain managers, with the leading bidders. He drafted the contracts for site validation and approval on a spend of about $20m.

Electric Power (US)

The mining operations in the US use large quantities of electricity (in excess of $18m/yr), yet the market is highly regulated. After many years of lobbying and legal actions, a window of opportunity to negotiate rates with the utility that served the mine existed. The site reached out to Nick to plan and structure the negotiation. Nick prepared a negotiation brief that he reviewed with site management, planned and rehearsed the agenda with the site representatives, and coordinated the negotiation meeting with the utility. We were able to secure a material discount on electricity rates. Since the contracting was not initiated in a timely manner by the site, the point of leverage was lost. This highlights the critical importance of implementation planning and post deal follow-through.

Heavy Equipment MRO parts supply

A significant expense where supply is constrained by warranty considerations and dealer territories (decided by the manufacturer). Nick helped plan and execute meetings to obtain better value through price reductions and technical know-how transfer. Expense reduction on this $20m+ spend would allow the life-of-mine to be extended, thereby continuing to employ hundreds of staff and contractors in this remote location. We were able to secure short term discounts that made the critical next few years a bit easier to navigate.

Travel and Corporate Services

Nick led the bidding of the air fare, car rental, hotel services and travel agent (TMC) support for all Americas operations, securing significant discounts and rewriting the travel policies for compliance by the TMC on a total spend of about $6m/year. Nick hired a Travel Services expert to advise him on specific aspects of the bid, its evaluation, the issues to probe with the proponents, as well as aspects of the Travel policy revision.

Cell phones (company wide)

Nick led the consolidation of all company cell plans, negotiations with the incumbents, and negotiating a final agreement for phones, local, national, trans-border, and global service on a spend of just less than $1m.

Naming Convention remediation

Nick and the corporate head of maintenance defined the project, competitively bid the work, facilitated the assessment of the responses, and successfully negotiated an agreement with the lead proponent for professional services to define a corporate naming convention for parts and materials and then upload the current item masters and enrich the descriptions to be compliant with the new naming convention across all Americas sites. The project was estimated at $500K for the Americas operations.

About Nick Seiersen, President & CEO of Seiersen Enterprises

A strong work ethic and tenacious task management get the job done on time, on budget and on spec. An enduring commitment to continuous learning and a broad-based understanding of how business works ensures common sense solutions that work. With an international upbringing in a family of diplomats, I understand cultural differences and cherish the innovation that can arise in diverse environments.

Coaching you to do the assessments and analyses I have completed extensively helps you learn by doing, to ask the right questions, to recognize good answers and when to dig further; and I don’t have to charge you for that effort.

If you want to keep the momentum and direction as you enter into a strategic deal, we should talk.

I have trained and taught in English and French at top university executive programs across Europe and Canada. If you require executive tailored development, I design and deliver a broad palette of disciplines where I have direct professional experience.

If you have a specific set of knowledge and skills you must develop, we should talk.

I have published professional, business, and learned articles across European and North American journals and over 100 Linkedin articles. I have served on the editorial boards of LQ (formerly Logistics Quarterly) and University of Bordeaux publications “Logistique et Management” and “Global Supply Chain Forum”. I write a regularly updated series of articles on Digitizing the Supply Chain in the French technical journal for engineers, les Techniques de l’Ingenieur. My first book, “Le Bon Accord avec le Bon Fournisseur” (the right deal with the right supplier) was published in French in 2017. It is a compendium of best practice and insight in procurement based on 20 years of consulting across many industries in North America.

If you want thought leadership content, we should talk.

Nick is a certified Vested® Practitioner and Vested® licensee.

What others say

“A work ethic second to none” Dr. Alan Saipe, Managing Director, BearingPoint

“Nick Seiersen is THE man in Supply Chain Management in Canada” Peter Chiddy, Partner in Charge, KPMG national advisory services

"Nick takes a thoughtful, yet expedited approach to developing relationships, commercial negotiations and contract execution. Options are well explored and leveraged to provide significant value." Mark Crawley, Vice President Commercial, KGHM International