We need to audit and renegotiate all our vendor contracts to improve our margins before an exit, but none of our department heads want to own this Vendor Audit seat because it is tedious, confrontational, and takes time away from their core roles. How do we assign a temporary or permanent seat that nobody wants to own?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To resolve this, you must treat the vendor audit and renegotiation as a temporary, dedicated seat on your Accountability Chart rather than spreading the work across your leadership team as an extra task. When responsibilities are shared, accountability dies. Nobody wants this seat because it is tedious, confrontational, and takes time away from their primary goals.

To solve the problem, first define the exact roles and deliverables for this Vendor Contract Auditor seat. The roles might include reviewing all vendor agreements, identifying margin-improvement opportunities, and renegotiating terms. Once the seat is clearly defined, look at your options for filling it.

You have three choices:
- Assign it as a temporary second seat to a leadership team member who has the capacity and GWC™ for it, making it their primary Rock for the quarter.
- Delegate it to an internal high-potential employee outside the leadership team who has the analytical skills and would view the project as a career development opportunity.
- Bring in an external, fractional procurement specialist to own the seat.

If you choose an internal employee, ensure they have the authority to act. If you choose an external resource, they must still sit in that box on your chart and report directly to a leadership team member, typically the VP of Finance. This ensures the work gets done without distracting your team from running daily operations.