Any true strategic procurement professional will realize that today’s sourcing decisions are becoming way more complicated than before. The supply market is shrinking because of increasing mergers and acquisitions everywhere. Our requirements and specifications are getting so much more demanding that traditional mom-and-pap vendors are no longer equipped to service us. To make it worse, I have been encountering pressure from vendors threatening to use their purchasing power on us, in order to gain leverage on securing our business.
How so? They, or their subsidiary companies or business units, are also buying from my clients. My neighboring product sales teams are knocking on my door asking me to give concessions in my buying decisions, in order for them to make a sale. There you have two competing forces on the table, within the same company, and supposedly working for the common good of us all.
This is where each of us may take a different stand. I am now put in a difficult position where I am supposed to save costs for user A, while sales team B is putting pressure on me to consider the bigger picture for the company with potential revenue at hand. Some of my colleagues choose to co-operate as much as possible with sales team B, and I have nothing against that. What I need to ascertain is that our ethics and code of conduct should never be compromised.
Not every company has a Reciprocal Trading policy. I personally will not give anyone preferential treatment just because of any potential benefits we can bring back. It is not something concrete that I can put in the bag, and frankly not something I can control either. Otherwise my procurement recommendation becomes redundant. I admit that such treatment could be well warranted, which I would recommend senior management to get procurement detached from this decision altogether, and in turn handle the whole matter in a business partnership discussion, instead of complicating a conventional sourcing exercise.
One can easily imagine the amount of sensitivity and scrutiny this could bring if the other vendors discover the reasons why they lose out. They can sue us and charge the company of suspected corruption. Whenever I sense potential gray areas, I need to stop and be careful of how to proceed.
The fact of the matter is that this is condoned by even the biggest global corporations that I have worked for, and I have been consulting with compliance and legal all along looking for clear guidance and answers. There has not been a very clear answer from everyone so far.
No matter how dignified everyone is trying to label the whole deal of reciprocal trading, the only thing I know is that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I like to go with my first instincts, whenever I am in doubt. Fingers crossed.
Confessions of a Corporate Shopaholic 
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