Your Genuine Desires Are What Truly Matter

Within the client organization, the technical staff always want to buy the most cutting-edge products to sharpen their skills and boost their marketability. Frontline business users insist on the easiest-to-use tools so they can leave work on time and get home to their kids. The procurement officer pushes for a new supplier because they’re fresh in the role and building their own vendor network. And the general manager’s talk of centralizing financial management is really just about consolidating power.
In the end, the stated procurement objectives are nothing more than the excuses each party mouths.

What truly matters are each person’s real motivations.
If you satisfy the formal procurement goals but ignore those underlying interests, you’ll be written out of the deal.

This kind of complexity doesn’t show up when you’re buying something at a small shop, because it’s just two people interacting. But once two organizations step in, the sheer number of players and the tangle of competing demands create an endless web of conflicting interests.
That’s why they say: wherever people gather, there’s politics. #ReadingNotes