The role of supply management has significantly changed as organisations become more interdependent on suppliers and contractors to provide products and services to meet the demands of their business operations and objectives The ‘Outside-in’ Theory poses the question that when we assess the importance and value of mission critical relationships should we be evaluating from another perspective. If organisations look at their operations from the perspective of outside in then the realisation is that perhaps managing relationships is a more complex and crucial ingredient for these diverse business models. It highlights the need to bring into play a much wider range of considerations that the traditional price, quality and delivery mantra. It also brings into question whether the traditional approaches of contracting for failure can effectively be applied in this environment.