Stephen Guth has been featured in various publications for his concept of vendor management, and he has authored various books and articles on procurement-related issues that are available for purchase. Click on a publication title below to be linked to an ordering website.

Books by Stephen Guth

The Contract Negotiation Handbook: An Indispensable Guide for Contract Professionals

Many books have been written on negotiation tactics and a few books have been written on contract drafting, but no book has combined the two disciplines into one—until now. Resulting from over 10 years of actual negotiation experience as both buyer and seller, Mr. Guth offers insight into a world of negotiations and contracts that few ever see.

This book is not a feel-good book on win-win negotiations. It is an insider’s view into real life negotiation tactics and ploys. Readers will learn how to use negotiation tactics such as the Columbo, the Price Slice and Dice, and the Signature Limit Lasso. Readers will also learn how to spot and counter vendor ploys such as the Pop-Tart, Mirroring, and the Only Game in Town. To put it all together, readers are instructed on contract drafting tricks such as Expressly Implied Warranties, the Endless Indemnification, and the Unlimited Limitation of Liability. Readers will never look at contracts the same way again.


The Vendor Management Office: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Sourcing

This book introduces the emerging concept of Vendor Management Offices or “VMOs,” which is a new way to manage vendors and strategic procurements. The book is much more than conceptual, and contains concrete and practical tools necessary to launch a VMO function. Mr. Guth also introduces controversy into the otherwise placid world of strategic sourcing by discussing the following in his book:

• Service Level Agreements are ineffective—at least ones that include liquidated damages as penalties—and should be replaced with the “Wrath of the Customer” model.

• Price does not matter.

• The RFx process that almost every company uses is irreversibly flawed and should be replaced by the "pre-negotiations" sourcing model.

• “Value for money" metrics, which measure intangible value, should replace some or all traditional vendor performance metrics.

• Purchasing staff and customers should accept vendor entertainment, such as lunches, and organizations that do not permit this are losing not just free lunches but performance value from their vendors.

• Companies should permit vendors to issue press releases, and customer marketing departments that do not permit vendor press releases are stuck in the Stone Age.

Articles by Stephen Guth

Beware Patent Trolls!

Learn about the underworld of so-called "Patent Trolls," and learn how to contractually protect against their evil and greed.

Articles Featuring Stephen Guth

A New Way to Manage Vendors