Management is extremely inexperienced and feels threatened by experienced individuals. Throughout the interview process, the company conveys the message that they are hiring candidates for their experience and their ability to make a dent in the universe. In reality, management wants to hire “yes” men and women. If you have a fact-based opinion, it will be ignored if the senior leadership team disagrees. Management tends to bury their heads in the sand and only hear what they want to hear – similar to toddler behavior.
Vendor Management is the worst department to work in at Spreetail. The other departments consistently blame Vendor Management for everything that goes wrong. It doesn’t matter if the critically aged software fails (which it does often), if the content team doesn’t build a listing appropriately (which happens often), or if Spreetail decides to not pay its vendors (the payment issues started around November) - it is and will be Vendor Management’s fault. Vendor Management does not have the tools to succeed and meet the metrics of Sales, Margin, and Inventory Turn.
The in-house software that the company touts is nothing more than a patch work blanket made by dozens of coders that have come and gone. The blanket is past the point of fraying, it has gaping holes in it. If you like to spend hours creating a PO, trying to launch items, or trying to fix an error, go for it. You will be doing very little Vendor Management.
There is a glaring mistrust between Senior Management and the rest of the company. For instance, Senior Management did not make Vendor Managers aware of the cash flow situation. Instead, knowing that Vendor Managers had no visibility to payment information, the company decided to stop paying vendors without any internal communication. Vendor Managers were then directed by leadership to get extended terms for current vendors. And well, you can imagine how that goes…
If you value family and your holidays, Vendor Management is not for you. You will be expected to be available 24/7 during the holiday season up until shipping cut off (usually the Friday before Christmas). You will be asked multiple questions about a single item by Senior Leadership. The CEO regularly messages Vendor Managers at night (think 8pm or later and on the weekends) to ask questions about certain items. More often than not, these items aren’t even in the Top 100 items that the company buys and sells. If that isn’t the epitome of micromanaging, I’m not sure what is…
Typically, experienced hires leave within 12 months of starting in Vendor Management.
