One of the privileges of being in this role is the opportunity it offers to have regular conversations with CPOs about their visions for the function and the strategic journeys they are on. It’s inspiring and helps to inform many of our own strategic product decisions. It’s conversations like these, as well as the many other community interactions we have, which have informed the development of our long-term product theme, Horizon 2030: Glide Paths for Sustainable Growth. And it’s interesting just how many of the CPO strategic visions I hear about resonate and align. As a reminder, our fi ..read more

The concept of supply chain redesign has been the subject of several CPO discussions over the past couple of years, increasingly since Covid and even more so since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Why? Many reasons. The need to de-risk over-complex supply routes, the demand for additional redundancy to drive supply security, the decoupling from certain regimes and regions due to geopolitical tension and inter-state competitive posturing, to name a few. While a well-functioning supply chain should be a constantly evolving entity anyway – a symbiotic grouping of individual entities workin ..read more

An exercise we’ve carried out on a few occasions over the years at Procurement Leaders has been to ask chief procurement officers to share the value propositions they have in place for their function. It’s useful because it forces extremely busy people to take a step back and think deeply about why they do what they do. What are the ultimate goals of those negotiations with suppliers? Why are they spending time building relationships with certain suppliers and not others? Where should scarce resources and investment dollars be spent? A value proposition, or value statement if done properly, is ..read more

For many procurement and supply chain leaders, it is standard practice to involve suppliers early when developing new products and services. But does it work? Early supplier involvement is a term that has evolved since the 1990s, when the world discovered that Japanese automotive OEMs such as Toyota and Honda outperformed their competitors in terms of design quality and time-to-market. Part of the explanation was the then famous ‘Toyota Production System’, an approach to organising manufacturing and logistics efficiently and without waste. Moreover, Toyota, in particular, had set up ingenious ..read more

Question: What’s driving your thinking when it comes to the rollout of artificial intelligence in procurement? Is it the efficiencies that might be gained from harnessing the technology? How about the insights that might be available? Or is it more fundamental, such as the potential new business models that might become possible? Or – whisper it quietly – the risks you face from not thinking about it at all? Whatever’s going through your mind, as we kick off our Americas Procurement Congress 2024 in Miami this week, the topics of digitalisation and the ongoing march of AI are front and centre ..read more

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how procurement, R&D and sustainability were being rolled under one leadership at Mars Wrigley. It’s a fascinating blueprint for how procurement is being viewed as a catalyst for sustainability – supporting the strategic involvement of suppliers in product development while embedding ESG across core business, and I’ll be watching developments with interest. Separately, a call I had the privilege to facilitate last week provided another insight into how global organisations are evolving their thinking about how best to embed sustainability throughout the ..read more

Hands up if you’re either thinking about, have recently been through or currently undergoing a procurement operating model change. I have a suspicion – if you were to play the game – that a lot of virtual hands would be reaching for the sky right now. Why? Anecdotally, I’ve had several conversations with CPOs recently that have landed on the issue, which is one sure indicator, but another stronger indicator was last week’s CPO community call on the subject. Now, get 50 CPOs on a call entitled Redesigning operating models to deliver enhanced value and the chances are those 50 CPOs will hol ..read more

A few weeks ago, a LinkedIn post from one of our members provided a tantalising and hopeful glimpse into the future.  This might be a bold claim but when Amanda Davies, Chief Procurement & Sustainability Officer at Mars Wrigley, announced that she was adding R&D to her remit to become Chief R&D, Procurement & Sustainability Officer, it provided a welcome reminder of the opportunity we have as a function. Amanda is only one individual working for one organisation but, as a statement of how procurement’s role might evolve in the coming years, it was powerful and logical. And ..read more

The well-worn adage of culture eating strategy for breakfast has been around a few years.  Attributed decades ago to one of the gurus of modern business philosophy, Peter Drucker, it’s a motto that argues that even the shiniest, most creative plans are worthless unless people feel empowered.  Drucker’s principles underpin the approaches of just as many CEOs and business leaders today as they did when he first floated his ideas in the mid to late 20th century. And one of the most foundational concepts relates to humanocracy, to give it a modern, on-trend label.  The idea is ..read more

If you live in the UK or keep on top of the British news agenda, you may have seen a story over the past few days concerning a political party announcing a U-turn on its signature green investment policy. What was said? Sir Keir Starmer, leader of opposition Labour party, announced that its flagship £28bn/year green investment pledge would be reduced to £15bn/year, of which only £5bn would be new money. The reasoning Starmer gave was the current economic climate and, specifically, the increased cost of borrowing would make servicing any additional debt unpalatable and politically challenging ..read more