Winning teams, both on the field and in business, thrive on alignment, trust, and shared purpose. While passionate teamwork may be less visible in corporate settings, there’s never been a more urgent time to make genuine collaboration a reality.
Tariff impacts are flowing through supply chains, amplifying cost pressure and operational risk. Most organizations are already talking—internally and with suppliers—but talking alone doesn’t create resilience. The real differentiator is whether those conversations are structured, fact-based, and anchored in a shared playbook. Whether it’s exploring cost-sharing models, rethinking international commercial terms (or Incoterms), or identifying opportunities nearshore, collaboration is the catalyst for progress.
move from ad hoc dialogue to embedded governance.
- Unify the conversation: Procurement should own the “single source of truth” for cost, risk, and exposure. That means integrating contract lifecycle management, analytics, and risk platforms so every stakeholder sees the same numbers.
- Embed collaboration in SRM frameworks: Supplier forums and joint planning shouldn’t be crisis-driven—they should be part of the cadence of supplier relationship management, with clear objectives and decision rights.
- Cross-functional alignment: Legal, Finance, and Operations need to work from the same assumptions and triggers. Procurement can orchestrate this by codifying flexible pricing models, risk-sharing mechanisms, and escalation paths.
- Fact-based decision-making: Use scenario modelling and digital twins to ground discussions in data, not opinion. When everyone sees the same risk simulations and cost impacts, alignment accelerates.
questions leaders should ask
- Are our internal and supplier conversations producing actionable decisions—or just updates?
- Do all parties have access to the same data and assumptions?
- Is our governance model clear on who decides what, and when?
Connect CLM, analytics and TPRM into a single, shared view—and add an agentic AI layer that keeps them in sync continuously. Always‑on agents monitor policy and market signals, reconcile data across systems, run digital‑twin scenarios, and route clear, fact‑based recommendations (with drafts and evidence) to the right owners. The result: one play sheet, one set of numbers, faster, auditable decisions—every day, not just in a crisis.
agentic management plays (examples)
- Signal‑to‑Decision Agent – Watches trade advisories, tariff bulletins and logistics alerts; quantifies exposure changes, triggers the relevant play, and assembles a decision pack (cost deltas, risk, options) for the governance forum.
- Facts Harmoniser – Continuously matches suppliers, SKUs, contracts and Incoterms across CLM/ERP/TPRM; flags conflicts (e.g., duty responsibility vs. invoicing terms) so conversations stay anchored in shared, clean data.
- Scenario Runner – Executes digital‑twin simulations on schedule or on signal (policy shifts, capacity changes), comparing mitigation plays and their cost/service trade‑offs; pushes results to the same dashboard everyone uses.
- Commercial Clause Copilot – Proposes tariff‑responsive clauses and indexation mechanisms aligned with legal templates, pre‑populates change notes, and tracks acceptance across counterparties.
- Augment your SRM– Recalculates segmentation and “adaptability” scores from performance and risk data, recommending the right commercial model and cadence per supplier—so collaboration is managed as standard practice.
Guardrails by design: Role‑based access, human‑in‑the‑loop approvals, audit trails and model confidence thresholds ensure agents assist decisions without bypassing controls. These are not projects; they are always‑on management plays that make collaboration and information management work at the speed of uncertainty.
Staying informed has to be an “always‑on” management play, not a response project. Trade policy continues to evolve in real time, and early signals surface across industry associations, trade forums, and government advisories—as well as through your own ecosystem, where suppliers often detect shifts in customs enforcement, duty rates, or logistics bottlenecks first. Embed that ongoing dialogue within your supplier‑management framework and operating cadence, and strengthen it through closer partnerships with customs brokers, trade advisors, and 3PL providers who routinely see regulatory turns ahead of the market. When these inputs flow into a shared, commercially grounded, fact‑based view of cost and risk, collaboration and information management stop being crisis rituals and become the core disciplines of a resilient supply chain—equally useful for today’s tariffs and tomorrow’s shocks.
What Procurement can do: Turn ongoing conversations into coherent, commercial, fact‑based decisions with these core plays:
Unify the facts. Connect CLM, spend/BI and TPRM so everyone works from one set of numbers (use light automation only where it helps clean and reconcile data).
Embed supplier dialogue in SRM. Make joint reviews part of the cadence with clear objectives, decision rights and follow‑through.
Tighten cross‑functional governance. Align Legal, Finance and Operations on triggers, pricing mechanisms and risk‑sharing—before issues escalate.
Segment & prioritize. Use SRM and risk frameworks to focus effort on the most critical and adaptable suppliers.
Run routine scenarios. Schedule scenario checks (e.g., tariff, logistics, capacity) so responses are pre‑agreed, not improvised.
Communicate with discipline. Provide concise, fact‑based updates that link exposure, options and decisions to accountable owners.
Close the loop. Track actions, measure outcomes and feed lessons back into the playbook and supplier plans.
real play: a global manufacturer
This global manufacturer operates in several locations around the world and has an ongoing need for highly specialized suppliers, also utilize multiple shipping routes and nodes. It was essential that their tier two suppliers were comprehensively understood to ensure a ‘no surprises’ risk profile.
Following extensive interviews and data collection, we conducted a detailed Failure Modes and Effect Analysis. This gave us the inputs we need to create a digital twin model. This model used Bayesian Probability to assess risk nodes, including geography, climate geopolitics, shipping and other external factors.
The Bayesian model assessed current risks and enabled an objective assessment of possible mitigation actions and their impact.
This analysis became the catalyst for a series of ongoing discussion with suppliers to address risks and to take agreed action. The new perspective this work offered also provided much needed peace of mind to our client.
In our next installment, Play 3, we will discuss how contracts can be used, especially as defensive plays.
Previously we published:
