Vendor Management Strategy
A coherent vendor strategy avoids the slow accumulation of one-off relationships that quietly drives operational drag.
Key takeaways
- —Maintain a vendor inventory with renewal dates and review notes.
- —Re-bid major relationships every 5-7 years on principle.
- —Evaluate vendors on conflict structure and talent stability, not only price.
- —Treat vendor management as a function with an owner.
Vendor strategy inside a family office answers two recurring questions: which functions should we keep in-house, and which should we outsource? Once outsourced, how do we keep the relationship competitive over time? Most offices answer the first question reasonably well — the obvious specialist work goes outside — and answer the second poorly. Relationships continue because nobody re-examines them, even after pricing power has shifted.
Working vendor management is owned. A senior team member is responsible for the vendor inventory: who, for what, on what terms, reviewed when. Major relationships go through structured re-bids on a rolling cadence. Selection looks at more than price — conflict structure, talent stability at the firm, willingness to engage substantively, depth of bench — because price is the easiest term to negotiate later, and the others rarely improve once locked in.
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