We have four different project managers who all handle a little bit of our vendor relationship management, but nobody actually owns the Vendor Relations seat on our Accountability Chart. How do we clean up this multi-person leakage?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When multiple people own a fraction of a seat, you have a major accountability leak. If four project managers are all handling a little bit of your vendor relationship management, then effectively, nobody is accountable for your vendor performance, contract negotiations, or cost controls.

This lack of clarity leads to wasted spend, missed deadlines, and constant finger-pointing when vendor issues arise. To clean up this leakage, you must use your Accountability Chart to create a single, dedicated Vendor Relations seat.

Start by defining the five clear roles for this new seat, such as managing vendor service level agreements, negotiating contracts, auditing vendor invoices, and handling escalations. Once the seat is clearly structured, evaluate who is the right person to fill it.

Use the GWC tool. Does one of your current project managers have the desire and capacity to take on this seat full-time? If so, move them into this seat and transition their project management tasks to others. If none of them fit the seat, or if they lack the capacity due to their current project loads, you must keep the seat open and recruit a dedicated professional to fill it.

By consolidating these fragmented tasks into one clear seat with one accountable name, you will immediately improve your operational margins and eliminate the administrative chaos that hurts your profitability.