It all comes down to this. After dozens of reader-donated supply and contract management tips. And weeks of voting on the best 10 recommendations. Supply Excellence readers have narrowed the list of The 100 Greatest Supply Tips of All Time! contestants down to three finalists:

• Win the home game first: Many companies start into supply chain management by working “only” with the closest suppliers and customers. Instead they should first ensure that all of their internal operations and activities are “integrated, coordinated and controlled.”
• Don’t Penalize Yourself: Performance credits and charges (thinly veiled penalties) can be misleading. I inadvertently learned that whenever a performance charge was owed due to a missed service level, the tier-one supplier was profiting from the sub-tier suppliers. They charged the tier-two 150% of what was owed to my company. So in fact, we had built an incentive to fail into our risk/reward factors with the tier one mitigating the full risk. This, of course, isn’t a sustainable strategy in the long term. It also misaligns actions with intended performance.
• Executive support is only half the battle: When senior leadership says you have their full support to begin introducing supply chain strategy across the organization, what they are really saying is that you have license to go out and sell your supply chain ideas for the various business units. So, perfect your sales pitch! And be sure to tailor and refine your messages to meet the hot buttons of unique stakeholder groups.

Now comes the fun part: selecting who wins. That final decision depends on you.

Click here to vote for your favorite tip.

The supply or contract management professional that offered up the winning tip will win a free pass to Aberdeen Group’s CPO Summit in Boston this November. So, vote early and often.