This book was created in the spirit of learning from nature in the field of professional purchasing. It describes real-world purchasing problems faced by companies as well as individuals and presents natural hands-on solutions that apply scientific approaches. The book answers what the core of purchasing could be, the inner structure of it or in other words the natural way. Nature masters effectiveness based on immanent laws and ensures efficiency by best results for minimal invest. Especially in complex and ambiguous situations, purchasers benefit from this book by understanding the broader context with the help of recent scientific research.Focusing on the problems that purchasers face in managerial practice rather than oversimplified generalizations, the book features step-by-step explanations, allowing readers to find tailored solutions to address challenges in key purchasing areas. The book was written in collaboration and with the help of experts in purchasing and logistics, biology, law and economics, human resource development, media and sports, and merges perspectives from theory and practice to provide natural strategies for purchasers.

Prof. Dr. Florian Schupp is Senior Vice President Purchasing Automotive OEM at Schaeffler Group and Adjunct Professor at Jacobs University Bremen, both in Germany. He has more than 20 years of purchasing experience in different industries. Dr. Heiko Wöhner is Director Supply Management Automotive OEM at Schaeffler Automotive Buehl GmbH & Co. KG, Bühl, Germany.