The Sourcing Solution: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program

Rating:
Summary: Good for general managers, not for professional purchasers
Review: As a procurement consultant I can agree on most issues Paquette raises in his book. Despite valuable details and a good overview, however, I would not recommend this book for professional purchasers, even though this is the target group Paquette addresses.

Why? The book is a little bit superficial in nature, just scraping issues without providing you with the tools you need to actually solve problems. As an example, Paquette talks about a Japanese technique called SMED. In the single page dedicated to the issue, you do not really learn what it is. The only advantage of being mentioned is that you may feel inspired to find out if it fits your company and how to implement it. Paquette includes some literature links, unfortunately without regularely quoting them in the text. So you have to start an own research or ask someone to do so for you.

This leads me to my final conclusion: In my opinion, professional purchasers may find the book too little revealing. Still, it is a good book, however for a different audience: The typical reader would be the head of a commercial department, who has also taken over the responsability for a purchasing sub-department and needs to have some introductory insights to understand the state and the potential for his purchasing unit.

Rating:
Summary: A Guidepost for Success
Review: In an age of micro business specialization, The Sourcing Solution provides a refreshingly broad approach to sourcing in the global economy. Where most business books on the shelf today delve deeply into a specific topic or bore the reader to tears with exploring the remotest corners of a topic, this book provides a road map to overall sourcing success.

As Paquette points out, this book provides an overview approach to sourcing, and lists and briefly covers the steps required to improve the probability of attaining success. For the new buyer, this is a checklist of learning and experience required. For the manager of a company looking to install a sourcing process, The Sourcing Solution identifies areas to be concerned with. As the reader goes through the text, they are free to create a sylibus of topics they feel they need to explore further.

This book is not intended to be the "Be all, final sourcing reference" when it comes to sourcing. Instead, it is a well written guide to sourcing of the future. I found it to be an entertaining read that presents the material in an informative, yet interesting manner.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Practical and Easy To Read
Review: Larry Paquette has crafted what might well become the essential handbook of best sourcing practices. This is an extremely well-written, easy-to-understand and timely guide. And though it's aimed at the purchasing/sourcing professional, anyone will find useful information on issues such as negotiating skills, ethical business practices and creating solid business relationships. Two rather extensive Reference and Suggested Reading lists are included.

Paquette's straighforward and extremely personable writing style raises the bar for business books. He takes the reader through the step-by-step process of how to negotiate the best solution possible while expertly avoiding the pitfalls that undermine future business relationships, both without and within one's organization. The book is full of practical examples, purchasing history, and lessons from the author's personal experience. The material is easy for the new purchasing/sourcing professional to grasp, yet it also offers valuable insight for the experienced business person, manager, and business owner.

However, it's the moral fiber of the book, Paquette's refreshing reinforcement that ethical behavior is still the best business practice, that brings us back to square one. Or, in the author's own words, "Anyone can question my abilities. What I never want anyone to question, is my integrity and honesty."

White collar, blue collar, or no collar at all, every working person can benefit from the wisdom and practical guidance found in The Sourcing Solution.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Purchasing is a critically important business function, although it lacks the glamour and excitement of, say, finance or sales. In the past, purchasing employees have often been little more than glorified clerks mired in price comparisons. Sometimes, their responsibilities included accompanying vendors to ballgames and such, activities that helped keep the purchasing pro's mind off the fact that not many CEOs seemed to come up through the purchasing department. That may already be changing. Indeed, purchasing is now a career hot spot. Several trends - such as corporate demands for cost cutting and outsourcing, new electronic markets and auctions, globalization of customers and vendors, sharper supply-chain logistics technology, and the movement to create partnerships with suppliers - make purchasing substantially more important than ever before. Author Larry Paquette offers a short, lucid, quite readable summary of the essentials of purchasing in that light. We find it an excellent, comprehensive and useful overview of sourcing.