Better results in negotiation and procurement.

A strong procurement strategy does not take the market as given: it shapes competition, comparability and credibility so that every award is decided by design, not b…

How cost reduction in procurement really works: the contribution-margin leverage, the difference between levers and arguments, sustainable versus one-off savings, an…

Should-costing builds a target price from the ground up, delivering the cost transparency that lets you judge any offer against what a product should cost — even whe…

A strong procurement negotiation is decided in preparation, not at the table: how competition, comparability and commitment become levers, and which cognitive biases…

How to design a procurement tender that draws enough qualified bidders, uses the right auction format, and evaluates offers on a clean, like-for-like comparison pric…

How to run the supplier base as a competitive field: dependency, self-made barriers and a practical pilot for building a supplier strategy that actually holds.

Global sourcing widens the supplier field, but lower prices abroad only become real savings when the extra bidders enter genuine competition and every offer is compa…

Where AI, e-procurement and digitalisation genuinely help procurement — and why the decisive lever still sits in award design, negotiation and the behaviour of the p…

Category and commodity-group management works only when each category is steered to its own market — competition, comparability, lot design and format all differ by…

Price comparisons alone are no longer enough in procurement. Should costing provides an objective cost baseline and turns price negotiation into a fact-based strateg…

Six common cognitive biases cost buyers real money at the negotiating table — from the supposed leverage of proving high margins to the belief that suppliers always…

Negotiating power does not come from skill but from structure: competition, comparability and commitment decide every negotiation before the first conversation begin…

Crisis manager Tobias Ruthe negotiates with hostage-takers and cyber extortionists — situations that offer no second chance. His principles on anchor demands, willin…

Whether a supplier is truly a monopolist is decided less by the market situation than by the information available to both sides. This article shows how buyers can m…

Competition is the most effective lever in procurement – yet many organizations unwittingly weaken it themselves. This article reveals the most common self-made comp…

When too few suppliers take part in a tender, this is rarely a matter of chance but the result of bidders' rational calculus. An analysis grounded in auction theory…

Traditional procurement leans on bilateral negotiation, where buyer and supplier bargain as adversaries and information stays hidden. This cornerstone article shows…

Most procurement debates fixate on the auction format, but the environment around it decides the outcome. This guide breaks down the 3Cs — Competition, Comparability…

Reverse English, Dutch, Anglo-Dutch, sealed-bid or a negotiauction — the format you choose decides how hard suppliers compete. This guide explains each procurement a…

In theory, the Cost Equivalence Theorem says your choice of auction format does not change what you pay. In practice, capacity constraints, risk-averse suppliers and…

In multi-item tenders, how you slice the work into lots quietly decides how much competition you get. This article turns Competitio's research framework, the Competi…

The cheapest bid is rarely the cheapest deal. This article shows how the Comparison Price Approach turns quality, risk and payment terms into transparent monetary ad…

The challenge of sector-regulated procurement Utilities, grid operators, transportation, and mining companies are subject to European and national regulation. Sector…

Cartels raise prices and thus procurement costs substantially and are notoriously difficult for most organizations to identify. Given the impact of hefty fines and d…

Many organizations adopt game theory based on its value during the procurement process. The challenge is understanding which projects to shortlist, particularly thos…

Many companies invest in training programs and external consulting, yet the impact often fades after a short time. Sustainable negotiation excellence does not emerge…

Negotiations are shaped by persistent assumptions that rest on intuition rather than systematic thinking. Many of them lead consistently to suboptimal outcomes. This…

Why do people rarely act on purely rational grounds in negotiations, and how can precisely this behavior be shaped in a systematic way? Behavioral design combines in…