Want innovative supplier relationships? Set the right environment

A Dutch community has recorded a 44% rise in birth rates 9 months after a helicopter accidentally cut power transmission lines into town. “It was cold in the houses. They [the townspeople] went to bed early to keep warm.”

Inadvertently, Maasdriel created an environment conducive to producing babies. If you want your suppliers to produce more innovation, create an environment where that can happen: Provide certainty of tenure, share the benefits, award additional categories or commodities to your most innovative suppliers, and spend enough time with them to allow you to understand their business and your suppliers to understand yours. Innovation will inevitably gestate.