---
title: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in Supplier Management
description: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in Supplier Management
---

[Supplierpedia](https://hub.hicxsolutions.com/blog)

# [“Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in Supplier Management](https://hub.hicxsolutions.com/blog/oh-the-places-youll-go-in-supplier-management)

 Written by [HICX](https://hub.hicxsolutions.com/blog/author/hicx) | Aug 1, 2013 4:15:54 PM

Today’s multinational corporations, those that register and operate in more than one country at a time, compete in a very different climate than most. Dealing with different cultures of employees, partners, suppliers, customers, and local laws/regulations is daunting.

Consider one particular customer’s makeup: 957,986 suppliers, across 153 site locations and 66 different countries. Oh, the places they went...

- Off to the **LDC** (Less Developed Countries), where 29% of their suppliers reside, for factory audits.
- Off to the **BRIC** (Brazil-Russia-India-China) countries (amongst others), where 10.5% of their suppliers reside, for elevated **FCPA/Anti-bribery** education and scrutiny.
- Off to **Central Africa**, where 54 of their Tier-1 suppliers, and an unknown number of n-tier suppliers, reside, so they can comply with the **Conflict Minerals Reporting** required to ensure no conflict minerals originate from a smelter or mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or bordering country.
- Off to collecting **FFI** (Foreign Financial Institution) info, for those non-US suppliers doing business with the US entity (7.8% of suppliers), to ensure their **W-8 BEN-E** is **FATCA** compliant.
- Off to the latest **weather-related incident** to ensure that a volcano, tsunami, or other, does not impact the supply chain and related revenue, and where 13.3% of their suppliers reside in the counties claiming a disproportionate level of **natural disasters**.
- Off to the “extreme risk” countries for **child labor**, where 10.1% of their suppliers reside, to enforce **Code of Conduct** standards.

Oh, the places you’ll go too. According to Dr. Seuss, "*Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. 98¾% guaranteed.*" But will it be easy – and will *98¾*% be good enough?

Without a full understanding of your supply network, and the ability to quickly overcome these challenges, no, I’m afraid it won’t be easy. And *98¾*% often won’t be acceptable. Consider Mattel, which delivered more than *98¾*% of their toys without lead paint, but the remaining small margin (less than 1%) cost them: $14.3 million in fines and 21 million toys recalled, resulting in a 43% drop in stock price.

"*Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind maker-upper to make up his mind.*" For those that do, however, and leverage the Supplier Management solutions that can travel with you: “*You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.*”

[View full post](https://hub.hicxsolutions.com/blog/oh-the-places-youll-go-in-supplier-management)

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