674: Challenging Traditional Thinking with Nemawashi w/ Réda Guiri

Art of Procurement

“Nemawashi is generally something we do on a yearly basis. Is it tedious? Yes. Is it easy? No. Does it take a lot of time? Yes. Is it worth it? Hell yes!” - Réda Guiri, Head of Group Outsourcing & Procurement, Toyota Insurance Services Europe

Everyone knows that getting stakeholder buy-in is critical for procurement, but it is not always straightforward – especially in large stakeholder networks paralyzed by red tape, over-thinking, and ‘decision-by-committee.’ Even when procurement does get stakeholder sign-off at some level, expectations and goals can still remain unmet when the final product or service is delivered.

In this episode, Philip Ideson speaks with Réda Guiri, Head of Group Outsourcing and Procurement at Toyota Insurance Services Europe, about the nemawashi method of consensus building. He shares his view about how this approach is often better than the methods procurement has traditionally employed to gain buy-in.

Philip and Réda discuss:

• What the nemawashi method is, how to implement it, and the benefits it can bring to the procurement process and to the business in general
• How nemawashi can help procurement navigate the difference between ‘agreement’ and ‘alignment’ in a large, complex stakeholder network
• Why nemawashi is hard work for procurement, but completely worth the effort in the end

Links:

• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement
• Réda Guiri on LinkedIn