Module 4

Question 1

Developing a Category Plan

Answer 1

Define Your Objectives. To be effective, your category strategy needs to support your company’s strategic objectives. You need to make this link visible.

Get the Facts. Defining your category plan must be a fact-based process. What does your spend look like? What are your industry’s competitive imperatives? What issues drive costs?

Develop a Plan. Translating the facts into a plan requires that you segment suppliers, understand priorities and tradeoffs, and quantify your opportunities.

Implement the Plan and Evaluate the Results. Just do it—but remember to baseline your initial performance so you can document your improved results.