The Context
At Mercedes-Benz Bank, collections operations were distributed across multiple international service centers. Each market had vendor relationships, but there was no consistent framework for measuring, comparing, or steering vendor performance across the organization.
I owned the Spanish market directly while working as part of an extended international leadership team. This position gave me visibility into how different markets approached vendor management—and where the gaps were.
The Approach
Rather than waiting for a centralized initiative, I started by analyzing performance patterns across markets. The goal wasn't to create a rigid template, but to identify what "good" looked like and make it easier for other markets to achieve.
Cross-Market Analysis
Working with data from multiple service centers, I identified patterns in vendor performance that weren't visible when looking at markets in isolation. Some vendors consistently outperformed on certain case types; others struggled with specific scenarios across all markets.
Framework Design
The framework I designed included:
- Standardized performance metrics that worked across market contexts
- Clear escalation triggers that weren't dependent on subjective judgment
- Regular review cadences that fit into existing operational rhythms
- Documentation that made the logic transparent to vendors themselves
Pilot & Scale
Spain served as the pilot market. We refined the framework based on real operational feedback before proposing it for broader adoption. The fact that it had been tested in practice—not just designed in theory—made the rollout smoother.
The Outcome
The framework was adopted across eight international service centers. More importantly, it changed how conversations about vendor performance happened: from anecdotal observations to data-informed discussions with clear action triggers.
The goal was never to create complexity. It was to make vendor steering feel obvious— something teams could do consistently without needing to reinvent the approach each time.
Reflection
This project reinforced something I believe strongly: the best operational improvements often come from people who work across boundaries. Owning one market while collaborating with others gave me both the ground-level detail and the cross-market perspective needed to design something that actually worked.