Source of Pride: Gavin Thomson

When it comes to sourcing in procurement across Asia, the name Gavin Thomson holds weight. The Global Sourcing Director at Ace Hardware International has built a formidable reputation for being able to drive transformation, streamline processes, and deliver and galvanize long-term supplier partnerships.

A background working with prominent publicly-listed companies like Li & Fung armed the executive with a deep understanding of global sourcing markets. It also introduced him to a host of respected leaders across a wide variety of fields.

"The good sourcing officers stepped up and developed a level of competency that meant their overseas buyers realized they could trust our people."

Speaking with The CEO Magazine, Thomson shares the qualities he aspires to emulate.

"From the highest levels to the most junior in the company, everyone respects a leader who is open and transparent," he says. "They come to work every day, put in their best efforts, and if they feel like things are being hidden from them, or things are being portrayed in a way that’s not completely true, I think that undermines the integrity and motivation of the organization.

"So, I always strive to be very open with my people about what’s really happening and this helps build trust and loyalty."

Broad Vision

Having seen multiple turnarounds, business bankruptcies, industrial action and even riots throughout his career of over 20 years, Thomson has a lot of experience to draw on.

As a result of his time at large companies, he realized the importance of ensuring all of the different departments remained aligned.

"Every business I’ve been in of significant size, you end up with competing agendas and silos," he continues. "The leaders I really admire have got an ability to build a common goal between functions that sees everyone saying, ‘That’s a goal we all want to go for.’"

Thomson has had no shortage of challenges since joining Ace Hardware just over three years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from moving from Hong Kong to his Shanghai base for six months.

"Trying to become familiar both with the team and the product base was quite a challenge," he shares. "Like a lot of businesses we were probably not prepared for all the challenges around remote working. We were not on Microsoft Teams, Slack or Zoom…. We were not set up for any digitization.

"So, initially that was difficult building relationships with people I had never met face-to-face, and understanding a really different product category and market to what I was working on before."

On the upside, Thomson says that period of turmoil accelerated the development of sourcing officers at Ace Hardware.

"The good sourcing officers stepped up and developed a level of competency that meant their overseas buyers realized they could trust our people. By empowering and developing the teams in the sourcing offices, they became drivers of business development, drivers of product development," he continues.

"Our people didn’t have visitors, they didn’t have people coming across every month; they had to develop their own capabilities and skills in terms of finding products and understanding what the buyers really wanted."

Honest Connections

With strong sourcing teams under him, Thomson can now focus on his global sourcing strategy for the next three to six years.

"We will be focusing on developing key partnerships in countries we see as being enduring, not just because of tariffs," he reveals.

"So, geographic development is a big point, and then ensuring we have the resources in each of those countries to be able to say, ‘Okay, if we do buy from these countries, do we have the infrastructure in place to make sure that we’re getting products that meets our standards, that the factories are compliant, and that we have the people in place to be able to follow up with any problems that we may have?’"

"Like personal relationships, business relationships should be based on the idea that you are in it to cooperate, and not being open can damage that relationship."

Most problems, Thomson adds, come from dishonest suppliers. "I’ve had a number of vendors, in my experience of 20-odd years in China, who have just been dishonest," he expands.

"They’ve been dishonest about what’s happening in their factory, they’ve been dishonest about a shutdown and it has created a snowball effect. This damages the long-term relationship and forces us to look for alternatives very actively.

"Then there is the opposite where they are very upfront and come to us to explain they have an issue, whether it be problems with their own suppliers or the government, and our response is always, ‘Thanks for the honesty, now let’s fix this together.’"

"Like personal relationships, business relationships should be based on the idea that you are in it to cooperate, and not being open can damage that relationship."