Originally from South Africa, I moved to Perth a little more than six years ago. I started with a post-graduate diploma in logistics and soon found that I enjoyed the challenge of post-graduate studies. The post-graduate diploma was followed by a master's degree in commerce specialising in supply chain management and procurement, which in turn led to a PhD in Information Systems that I am currently studying. Which technically speaking will probably become a PhD of Management since the departments at Curtin have recently realigned. In short, I am currently completing my research in trust as a governance mechanism between buyers and suppliers in the supply chain.
While much learning was accomplished by completing the never-ending literature review, the greatest learning I have obtained so far lies in the analytical tools required for the quantification of trust. The research for this degree has taught me so much in regard to the importance of trust. Not only in personal relationships but in inter-organisational relationships and relationships between the client and the supplier.
And as a number of considerations with industry experts have taught me on this journey is that there seems to be a lack of trust between collaborative organisations. Regardless of the power-structures between the organisations. Even multi-nationals with higher levels of power in the buyer-supplier relationship find that establishing trust between them and their clients remains to be an uphill battle.
I would like to implement what I have learned in my research to aid organisations in helping to create trust-based sustainable relationships. To avoid boring you with the statistics and extant research I will summarise it: trust provides both the buyer and the supplier with a boatload of benefits.
What started as a brief trip to study a world-class course and return to South Africa, has blossomed into a PhD in the making and a citizen of this beautiful Australia.