Here are just a few excerpts from the chapter “The Power of We” in Getting to We (released August 13, 2013), featuring Scott Schroeder.
“Getting to We is not just for large companies. Small and midsized companies have also benefitted from the WIIFWe mindset.”
“Several years ago Scott Schroeder, president of contract manufacturing at RelianceCM, couldn’t believe what he was reading. Here was a book describing the very philosophy that he himself embraced. That book, Vested Outsourcing: Five Rules That Will Transform Outsourcing, spoke to him at a deep level, yet his company was not even in the outsourcing business. His company was at the other end of the contracting spectrum… He wondered how he could leverage the Vested mindset, methodology, and business model to meet RelianceCM’s needs and the needs of his customers. Ultimately, Schroeder decided that the best fit for his company was to select a couple of customers and get to We.”
“It took time for Schroeder to find the right kind of current and new customers to negotiate We relationships. Schroeder described one of the first tests for selecting a customer for a WIIFWe relationship, quipping, “We take them out to dinner. And if they are not someone we would take home to our family, we are not going to have a collaborative relationship with them.”
“This is a fundamental part of RelianceCM’s success. Schroeder and his team work together with suppliers for the benefit of the relationship with their customers. Once he understands the supplier’s thinking, he looks at the total picture to reduce costs. He might change the scope of the project or eliminate an unneeded step in the process to reduce the price without taking advantage of the supplier.”
If you’re interested in reading more, head over to the Vested website. You can snag a copy of the book there.
