Purchasing in a complex humanitarian institution: the portuguese red cross

Abstract

Choosing the purchasing strategy of an organization can be a complex process. Some organizations have rooted habits that are extremely difficult to change. The Portuguese Red Cross (PRC) is a highly diversified institution where each branch works independently. Currently, the PRC purchasing strategy is not well defined for delegations. After assessing the purchasing process, two different strategies were considered as possibilities for the future. However, it became clear that a full centralization would not be the ideal model due to many resistance factors. In the end, it seemed that the best purchasing approach for the PRC would be a hybird progressive partially centralized strategy.