Supplier Relationship Management

Integration is announced as control, yet it converts a variable cost into a fixed one and a switching option into a lock-in that procurement inherits after the deal is signed. The capability you build is strategy; the supplier you absorb is a liability you never got to price.

Consolidation hands procurement a lower unit price and quietly takes back the leverage that made the price possible. The suppliers you remove are not waste — they are the competition that kept the survivors honest.