Art of Procurement

"The 'complexity masters' have taken the transactional side of procurement and turned it into a well-oiled machine, a combination of operating models and digital strategies, so that they can focus on those areas where they can drive the most value." The annual Deloitte Global CPO survey is one of the most anticipated reports of the year. In this year's report, the 11th annual, the authors took a different approach than they have in the past, calling out a single word of focus: complexity. Ryan Flynn is a Principal at Deloitte Consulting with 14 years of experience helping global companies improve their sourcing and procurement efficiency and effectiveness. Despite the fact that so many things seem to remain the same in procurement year after year, Ryan observes that his team is seeing movement – and fortunately, we are moving in the right direction. Procurement's scope is shifting, as is our attitude towards 'good' risk. Of course, there is still plenty of work to be done, and nothing ever remains the same.

You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start? In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running. In the fifth - and final - episode of the series, I spoke with Shirin Tomlinson, head of The Efficio Academy, about the importance of investing in skills development, starting with how a new CPO can attract the best talent into procurement. In addition, Shirin and I discussed: What skills CPOs should look for in their teams now and in the future How companies should approach the training and upskilling of current team members The risks associated with not focusing on the team and their skills in the early days of a procurement change effort

You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start? In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running. In this fourth episode of the series, I spoke with Peter Wetherill, a Principal at Efficio, about where to start with the new technology that you are expecting enable your elevated procurement value proposition. In addition, Peter and I discussed: The legacy of wasted time and resources associated with technology implementations How important procurement's technical 'literacy' is to the realization of post-implementation ROI Where to begin in a non-digital procurement organization How to evaluate technology that is already in place

You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start? In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running. In the third episode of the series, I spoke with Sushank Agarwal, a Principal at Efficio, about the tactics that help maintain the delicate balance between delivering quick savings and preserving long term relationships with stakeholders and suppliers. In addition, Sushank and I discussed: Whether quick-win savings require you to start off with an unhappy supply base The value that procurement teams already have within their reach but often overlook The common pitfalls experienced by procurement teams in pursuit of quick-win savings The critical role the executive leadership team has to play in building stakeholder support

You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start? In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running. In the second episode of the series, I spoke with Vikas Tyagi, a Principal at Efficio, about the steps a CPO can take to create a high performing procurement operating model - from assessing the suitability of their inherited model to designing a new fit for purpose organizational structure. In addition, Vikas and I discussed: Why now is the right time to reset procurement operating models Why it is so hard for everyone to know what to expect of procurement The standard elements that should be part of any procurement operating model Best practices from procurement organizations who have successfully changed their operating model

You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start? In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running. For the opening episode of the series, I spoke with Simon Whatson, a Principal at Efficio, about the importance of repositioning procurement. This is a key initial consideration, because you will likely face challenges as you work to convince skeptical stakeholders that this time it will all be different. In addition, Simon and I discussed: The importance of procurement / enterprise alignment The hardest parts of leading change in procurement How a forward-looking vision for procurement should be different by industry Why procurement needs to take an honest look in the mirror before investing in branding

I've been spending a lot of time the past few months working with procurement teams on their transformation journey from being a tactical function to a strategic one. This journey must begin by inspiring people on the art of the possible. This often has to be members of your procurement team - to rethink the possibilities of what they can achieve - and also senior executives and stakeholders - on what they can expect from a fully functional procurement team. Today, I'm going to share a few approaches that you can use to secure executive buy-in for your procurement transformation.

In this episode, AOP Host Philip Ideson and Kelly Barner (AOP Content Director and Owner of Buyers Meeting Point) discuss their major take-aways from September's news, industry topics and podcast interviews. In September, we heard four diverse interviews: NBA CPO Joe Postiglione started the month by reminding us of the importance of self-empowerment as well as how powerful a truly engaged manager can be. Mahmood Shah, Director of Global Procurement at MetLife, brought the continued importance of change management to light by talking about his company's exploration of emerging technologies. Chris Sawchuck, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, shared recent research into World Class Procurement – including how (and now not) to pursue World Class status. Finally, Deutsche Telecom's Hakan Cakir provided an example of how procurement can move into uncharted waters without feeling pressure to already know everything. This month's discussion topic is how to make the most of the fall conference season. Whether you are a 'frequent flyer' or only attend one event a year, Phil and Kelly provide advice on making the most of your time onsite, how to survive those awful coffee breaks and the answer to the question all conference-goers ask at some point: if a session is not well done, do I really have to stay for the whole thing?

"If you were to ask me what the 'Art of Procurement' is, I would say it is bringing together the right people and the right partners." In this week's podcast, we get to listen in on a conversation about digital transformation on a global scale that was recorded at Ivalua NOW in Paris earlier this year. Hakan Cakir is the Procurement Digitalization & Analytics Product Owner of Sourcing Solutions for Deutsche Telekom AG, one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications solutions with 178 million mobile customers, 28 million fixed lines and 20 million broadband users in 50 countries. DT is best known in the US for their T-Mobile brand. The procurement steering team that Hakan works within has end-to-end responsibility for all group wide strategic procurement processes and systems including digitization and innovation roadmaps. Given the scope and scale of their project, they leveraged advocates across the company, a key decision that allowed them to harmonize their processes before implementing technology. In this conversation, Hakan talks about: Their future state vision for the source-to-contract process and how that informed technology decisions. How his team emphasized usability and acceptance testing to improve the implementation process and maximize adoption rates. Lessons learned from a broad global rollout that required change management training and communication. How DT plans to move forward towards their primary goal of building a fully data-driven procurement function. The role that emerging technologies such as chatbots may play in DT's global procurement future in the future.

"How do I get from where I am today to where I would like to be?" In the age of digital transformation, it goes without saying that change is on everyone's mind. But despite all of the energy we are putting into thinking about change, we may or may not be seeing that change come to pass. In this week's podcast, host Philip Ideson speaks with Chris Sawchuck, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group. They recently released a new research report titled "World-Class Procurement: Redefining Performance in a Digital Era". In Chris' experience, many procurement teams are looking for step-by-step guides for change that would be better led more organically, by a leader with a vision for proving procurements' intrinsic value. One example is a question he is asked often: "How do we become a trusted advisor?" Rather than looking for details as to how, Chris instead characterizes the traits he sees most often in advisory procurement teams, not the least of which is balancing agility with consistency. In this conversation, Chris shares his advice about: ● Emerging technologies and how they are being incorporated into the existing procurement technology landscape by world-class organizations. ● Avoiding a focus on lengthy, 200-page policy manuals that no one is going to read or follow. ● What he sees happening in the teams that successfully lead change from within, including investments in automation, education and execution.