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Michael Cai, Décor Global’s Director of Operations and Supply Chain: Better BuyingTM as a Catalyst for Change

Michael Cai, Décor Global’s Director of Operations and Supply Chain, calls on all suppliers to rate their customers on the Better BuyingTM platform, and help build a better industry for everyone 

It goes without saying that sustainability is a long journey without a finish line, and that all stakeholders must join hands in order to move forward & beyond.

Looking back, one of the biggest lessons learned from the Covid-19 ordeal was the importance of strong partnerships and how critical they are to building a successful business.

No one is a single actor. And the responsibility of improving working conditions and maintaining sustainable practices lies with both buyers, and suppliers. 

At Décor Global, we aspire to be a leading part of the global forces for good and to drive positive changes both socially and environmentally. We look to collaborate with buyers, suppliers, third party agents and not-for-profit organizations to innovate and solve the many challenges we are facing today.

We have been engaging with Better Buying Institute for 6 years now. Its vision – that buyers and suppliers should work together with responsible purchasing practices to achieve shared goals of profitability and social and environmental sustainability, strongly resonates with us. We see its unique value – providing a safe, anonymous, easy to complete platform so suppliers can engage with buyers, give candid and honest feedback, and co-create solutions to shared business challenges. While assured that their business relationships will not be jeopardized. 

Over the years we have seen positive changes from the buyers we have rated on the Better Buying TM platform. We have deepened  engagement with our buyers as they have become more open to listening to our feedback and suggestions. We’ve seen real improvements in our customers’ forecasting, planning and business management practices.

When we fed back to some of our buyers about the pressures we faced because of social duplicative audits, they listened, and adopted industry audit schemes such as the SLCP (Social & Labor Convergence Program) Converged Assessment Framework so as to reduce audit fatigue. This saved us resources we were able to re-invest in improving working conditions.     

We would strongly encourage our peer suppliers to go onto the Better Buying TM website and rate their buyers’ purchasing practices.

Remember, the more suppliers rate, the more robust the data and the more brands and retailers will be motivated to improve. These joint efforts will catalyze positive changes across our industry as we work to build a better world for all.