I love to golf here in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, where you never know what Mother Nature’s going to serve up before you even tee off. One minute you’re soaking in that warm Carolina sunshine, Spanish moss swaying and Spartina grass whispering with an easy breeze. Drives are smooth, the air’s salty sweet, and you find yourself thinking, heck, maybe today’s the day for my personal best.
But just as quick as a shrimp boat rounds the bend, the sky turns moody, storms barrel in from the Atlantic, and suddenly you’re squinting through sideways rain, dodging not just sand traps but an alligator scurrying across the fairway looking for shelter from the pop-up storm in the next lagoon.
I’m (clearly) not a professional golfer, but I have been a professional in procurement for more than two decades and have seen the space battle all kinds of elements. That wild swing in weather on our local courses is nothing compared to the whiplash you feel in procurement—the changes hit fast, hard, and sometimes cost you more than just a lost Titleist Pro V1. One day you’re cruising with dependable suppliers, the next, market forces shift and you’re scrambling through negotiations like a golfer chasing par during a Lowcountry squall.
Direct procurement in automotive isn’t a game, but if it were, the rules would be continuously changing. Whether it’s chip shortages that won’t stop or multi-billion-dollar fires that take entire productions offline for months, supply chain fragility and risk vulnerability continues to increase as the industry shifts further away from mechanical dominance and toward electronic dependence.
To set procurement up for future stability and success, it’s essential to understand why yesterday’s strategies no longer work today, what needs to change, and how you can make it happen.
Read the complete blog at Samsung SDS.
