Author Archives: Tom Lewis

About Tom Lewis

Tom is responsible for the IPA’s finances and advises members on agency financial issues. He is a Chartered Accountant and has held senior financial positions across the FMCG, marketing services and advertising sectors, including Coca-Cola, Ogilvy & Mather, Huntsworth and Omnicom.

Marketing Procurement: highly effective at the wrong thing?

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Tom Lewis

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Professional buying of marketing services is highly inefficient – it just happens to be very effective. Unfortunately at the wrong thing. Professional buying of agency services is based on two key behavioural insights: You cannot win a negotiation that you are not prepared to walk away from
the more emotionally invested you are in a process, the harder it becomes to walk away. If, as a professional buyer, you are incentivised to obtain cost savings from your suppliers, you would naturally develop a buying process that maximises your chances of achieving that. Continue reading →