ABSTRACT
The Purchasing Chessboard was first launched by the consultancy AT Kearney back in 2008 as a tool to derive the best method for reducing costs and increasing value when engaging a supplier. Though the Purchasing Chessboard may look sophisticated, serious questions need to be asked about its practical application and rigour. Many of the 64 individual strategies are common sense and completely unrelated to supply and demand power dynamics. The premise starts by cross-referencing supply power and demand power dynamics to create several basic procurement strategies that can be used to support discussions between an organisation’s procurement team and its key stakeholders. Procurement managers are regularly challenged with developing a relevant strategy that suits the specific circumstances of the markets they are sourcing from. Professor Andrew Cox claimed the model lacks coherence by focusing on the supply market as a single entity and not focusing on the power dynamics of individual suppliers within it.
