On Day Two of the conference, we had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Tennyson of VSP Global – and CPO Honors Award winner – and dive deeper into the role of sourcing in modern business. As part of the largest not-for-profit vision benefits provider in the United States, VSP Global’s sourcing organization must work closely with the business to ensure optimum cost savings and risk management. To do this, VSP uses technology including  Scout RFP to demystify sourcing for the rest of the business and encourage enterprise-wide engagement.

With simplified processes, the VSP sourcing organization has become a strategic partner to the business, leading to increased engagement and savings across the enterprise.

How do they do this? Here are Greg’s top tips:

1. Sourcing requires 2020 vision.

Complete visibility into the sourcing process is imperative to smooth operations. With new technologies, procurement professionals can now manage all of their projects in one place and keep their stakeholders constantly in the loop and up to date.

2. Automation is your friend.

With increasingly complex projects, the sourcing organization must nurture its internal and external relationships more than ever before. Procurement professionals need solutions to help streamline and automate their workflows, and ultimately give them more time to focus on people, not paperwork.

3. If you’re not early, you’re late.

Being proactive is imperative to sourcing success. Greg urges procurement professionals to engage with the business early and often in order to establish strong relationships and achieve better outcomes.

We sincerely appreciated our roundtable discussions with Greg and loved hearing how VSP Global is leveraging technology to maximize sourcing’s impact on the business. CPO Rising 2019 reinforced that sourcing and procurement are more important than ever in managing risk and driving cost savings. As business challenges become increasingly complex, sourcing organizations must be equipped with the proper tools in order to keep up and get ahead. We can’t wait to attend next year’s summit and continue learning from procurement industry leaders.

We were thus very happy to have Bill present on his experience with building a new procurement team from the ground up. He took us on his journey through the process, and offered us his lessons learned through it all. Bill began with what should happen on “Day 1” of this process, starting with an honest self-assessment that, to be frank, should never really end. He then talked about “minding the gap” between perceptions of what procurement does (“they’re only focused on price,” “they operate in a silo,” “they slow us down,” “they don’t know our business or our market,” “they make us bid on everything!“), versus what procurement should actually do. Bill then gave attendees some advice on how to change those perceptions to re-position procurement as a strategic value driver.

“It is incumbent upon the CPO to engage and educate, then collaborate and execute,” he said.

Bill and his nascent team then had to face their reality. At Carbonite, they had:

• No procurement tools at all
• A decentralized, local approach to sourcing and procurement
• No visibility into spend and, therefore, savings

Thus, Bill and his team found themselves having to transform the procurement organization from glorified purchasers to strategic business partners, with or without the requisite tools.

Based on his and his team’s experience, Bill then gave some advice on how to start the actual transformation process (assess, address, and execute). Bill advised to break the plan down into several manageable steps — addressing stakeholders, real opportunities, the process, capabilities, and constraints — while keeping the bigger picture in mind.

He advised us to not “boil the ocean,” which can be tempting for any leader who’s starting out on this journey. Instead, procurement leaders should focus on collaborating with stakeholders — from the CEO to the line-of-business — getting access to any and all pertinent data, and employing data analytics and management tools to wrangle and make sense of that data.

“These,” he said, “led to impactful results and a pathway for future investment.”

Bill then talked about transformation disruptors, such as lacking resources, technology solutions, having multiple stakeholders, mergers and acquisitions, executive turnover, reorganization, and economic factors. But perhaps the biggest challenge all procurement teams have is managing data. Common data challenges for him and his team were having no formal spend reporting, no procurement support tools (again), multiple data sources with different owners, the data lacking sufficient detail. Bill then talked about making a business case for data management and analysis tools, and reiterated the need to derive valuable insights from data.

Bill then gave us some initial results from his team’s growth and transformation initiative, which included generating savings of $1.1 million to data (11%), establishing a network of stakeholders (breaking down more internal walls and establishing a regularly collaborative cadence), and continuously driving savings and process efficiencies — something that never ends and truly should never end.

Bill then closed out by providing a list of lessons learned for the audience, which are:

• Understand that there’s immense value in data — you cannot chart a course if you do not know your current position, and you can cannot adjust what you cannot measure
• Value internal stakeholder relationships — break down silos, reach across the aisle, seek first to understand and then be understood
• Continuously nurture your relationships — “a greenfield must be watered.” Once you’ve established relationships, work to communicate and collaborate and keep them aligned to your team’s mission
• Building brand is key to long-term success — in order to be known as strategic value drivers, you have to establish your team as strategic value drivers, and show up every day to prove it

We are so grateful for Bill for sharing his and his team’s experiences, and we wish them the best as they continue to grow the procurement function at Carbonite.

Anyway, the Ardent team is once again reflecting on the event in a series of articles here on CPO Rising. Today’s article is the first installment — three primary takeaways from CPO Rising 2019. So if you missed the event and want to catch up, this is for you. But if you were there and want to quickly refresh, we’ve got your back, too.

Three Takeaways

One — The Face of Procurement is Changing. The crowd at CPO Rising 2019 was more diverse than in recent years, and that’s something for the procurement industry (and us) to both acknowledge and celebrate. Ardent welcomed a beautiful array of men and women from all walks of life — Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers, and Millennials; people from all over the country and all over the world; and professionals from other industries and verticals, whose roles are touched by procurement and supply chain. Speakers, panelists, and roundtable hosts brought their authentic selves to the event, and looked out at an audience that not only looked like them, but also represented them and their challenges and opportunities to make an impact in supply management today.

Two — The Paths to Procurement are Winding Still. Speaking of diverse backgrounds, I was thrilled to see two friends in the audience who typify the ways in which professionals find their way to procurement (names and employers are being withheld to protect the innocent).

• One, a college friend who has spent nearly two decades climbing the ranks in procurement. A social sciences major, she decided instead to pursue a career in business, earning her MBA and progressing from vendor management, to category management, to sourcing, to ultimately procurement. As a senior manager, she is one procurement pro who is continuing to rise.
• Another, a dear friend who I’ve known for nearly a quarter century, returned to Boston after working abroad for more than a decade. As a former country Chief Information Officer for a major insurance company, the breadth and depth of experience he brought to this conference — as a collaborator of procurement, as someone who has vetted and implemented procurement technologies — was so unique. Although he was not a procurement pro, per se, his exposure to and experience with enterprise procurement teams offered delegates an opportunity to share perspectives with one of procurement’s most important stakeholders.

Three — Procurement Runs in the Family. 2019 saw the second consecutive parent-sibling duo at the conference. Last year, we had Meghan Truchan, VP and head of procurement at Bain Capital, in attendance. She is a third-generation procurement leader and a rising star in her own right. This year, we had Mary Kachinsky, CPSM, CPM, and VP of Strategic Sourcing at Kaleido Biosciences, and daughter, Amanda Kachinsky, senior manager of global sourcing at blue bird bio, not only in attendance, but also delivering a keynote presentation and sitting on a panel discussion, respectively.

While we are our own persons — few of us are still “directed” or “told” to pursue this or that career — we are also the products of our environments. Many of us grew up watching our parents climb the proverbial corporate ladder and hearing them tell us what was so special about each rung. We look up to our parents, even as we see them occasionally struggle to reach that next rung. We admire them even more for the struggle. So then it is no surprise that some of us follow in our parents’ literal and figurative footsteps, up that procurement ladder, rising towards the coveted CPO title.

Final Thoughts

I’ve written in past reflective articles about how the event amounts to months of prep work, late nights, and early mornings, only to come and go in a whirlwind of keynotes, breakouts, panels, and roundtables. That was as true this year as in year’s past. But every event is unique. This year’s event was more diverse, more representative of procurement pros and stakeholders, and in a literal sense, more familiar than in past events. Indeed, it does keep getting better.

P.S. I want to personally invite you to a new webinar, the Voice of the CPO Rising 2019 Summit, on November 14th at 2 PM ET, where the Ardent team will highlight the key speaker presentations and discussions that took place during the event.

The CPO Honors were established to celebrate the procurement function and recognize the accomplishments of the profession’s best leaders and teams. These awards have quickly become the procurement industry’s most prestigious series of awards. CPO celebrities and prior winners played an active role in the ceremony which was hosted by Tradeshift’s CPO, Roy Anderson.

The CPO Rising Hall of Fame Class of 2019

Established in 2016, The CPO Rising Hall of Fame inducts up to three procurement leaders each year who have differentiated themselves and their organizations by a blend in leadership in innovation, executive stewardship, process excellence, and dedication to their craft. This year’s inductees are:

James L. Polak, former Director, General Purchasing, PPG Industries, Inc.

Uldis Sipols, Former CPO Gillette, Danaher, AMP, Sonoco; Executive at P&G and Ford

CPO Honors 2019: And the Winners are…

The CPO Honors were presented in 6 categories. The finalists and winners (in bold) are noted below.

The Innovation Award Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO and team that have used new and innovative strategies and approaches to overcome significant hurdles.

• WINNER: Anu Saxena, Senior Vice President and Global Head for Hilton Supply Management (HSM) and the HSM Team
• Sprint’s Procurement Team

The Technology Excellence Award Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO and team that have leveraged technology solutions to impact procurement operations and performance.

• TIE – WINNER: Andrea Greco, Chief Procurement Officer, CBRE
• TIE – WINNER: Jorge Martín Torres Pérez, Strategic Procurement Director, Coca-Cola FEMSA

Best Team Performance Award Finalists: This award is presented to the procurement department that has excelled across the full scope of procurement operations to make a significant impact on overall enterprise results.

• WINNER: Highmark Health Global Procurement & Payables Team
• Endurance’s Procurement Operations and Business Intelligence Team

The Leadership Award (CPO of the Year) Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO who has driven new performance heights as a result of their direct involvement and leadership and overall exceptional executive management.

• Kai Nowosel, Chief Procurement Officer, Accenture
• WINNER: Greg Tennyson, Head of Global Corporate Services,  VSP Global
• Mike Morsch, Vice President Global Procurement & Supply Chain, CDK Global

Innovative Solution of the Year Finalists: Presented to the solution provider who most significantly impacted the market with innovative solutions.

• WINNER: BuyerQuest
• Fairmarkit

Best Technology Partnership Finalists: Presented to the best partnership between a solution provider and their procurement team customer on to a technology deployment.

• WINNER: Scout RFP and Biogen
• Ivalua and Whirlpool

Ardent Partners extends its congratulations to the CPO Honors finalists, winners, and new CPO Rising Hall of Famers! Watch for more details about those recognized last night.

About Ardent Partners

Ardent Partners is a leading research and advisory firm focused on defining and advancing the supply management strategies, processes, and technologies that drive business value and accelerate organizational transformation within the enterprise. Ardent’s analysts have decades of experience publishing primary research that help business leaders in procurement, supply management, and financial operations make smarter technology decisions and improve their performance. Ardent hosts its annual CPO Rising Summit in Boston each fall. To learn more about the company, visit www.ardentpartners.com and www.cporising.com

David Kern

Andrew Bartolini: How did you get into procurement and how did you move up into your current position today?

David Kern: I fell into procurement when I worked at Staples. I was at a point in my career where I had to decide if I wanted to work in public service (police and or fire department), or if I wanted to stay in corporate America.  While working in Staples internal audit, I had an opportunity to take on an audit of our transportation division; and at the same time I was on a path to explore becoming a police officer. I quickly found in my audit that a transportation division at Staples really needed someone to manage the transportation portfolio for its final-mile delivery, which at the time was roughly thirty million dollars in annual spend. Staples leadership offered me this unique advancement position but I turned it down and chose to stay on the path of exploring becoming a police officer.

After successfully completing the Police Academy, I was once again approached and re-offered by Staples to take over the final-mile delivery supplier oversight function.  Feeling as though I had accomplished a personal goal and could remain semi-active in helping the local community; I accepted the Staples offer and continued to volunteer as a Police officer.  Over the next nine years, I led efforts to help grow the transportation portfolio to a half a billion dollars.  It was during that course of time that I was able to recognize my own personal talents in driving value – whether it be through collaboration with vendors, or through identifying synergies to yield better service, expense, and overall healthiness for the space that I was overseeing.

AB: That’s awesome. So, it sounds like even though you were within a fairly well-established business, you really got great experience in managing a high growth business?

DK: In the span of nine years, I was able to see something later commonly known as transformation; and not even really see it – I actually lived in the middle of it.   Staples has a well-defined North American final-mile delivery footprint; as that business started to grow within North America as one of the few next-day service providers, it was critical they continuously build out network capabilities.  This included adding fleets and couriers on top of increasing the reliance on UPS/FedEx/USPS; along with other non-traditional modes of transportation. During that course of time, it was important to focus not only on domestic transportation growth, but expand into Canada and other international locations.

When you take all that explosive growth and scale into consideration, and you then layer in the purchase of Corporate Express, a large next day office supply corporate retailer, my role within transportation and transformation became instrumental overnight.  I found my passion as a change agent focused on transforming different business operations and value add services.  My mission was clear, to focus on driving a common service offering that provided the highest level of service at the lowest sustainable price. So when I hear about transformation as the new buzz word in today’s boardrooms, I quickly smile as I had an opportunity to experience transformation very early in my career – and for that I am extremely grateful.

AB: You’ve hit upon two great things: dealing with a fast-growth environment and merging organizations.  What are some of the takeaways you have in bringing two organizations together and managing that change?

DK: When two companies merge, sometimes the assumption is that the acquired company doesn’t have the best processes; and so the acquirer may assume that what they’re doing is best in class.  Taking this mindset can be a real disadvantage. Rather, taking time to seek to understand and brainstorm as a collective group, open and honestly, will often find that you both have solid best practices and process.  It’s a matter of augmentation and tweaking to get to the best process for the combined entity going forward.

In addition to just seeking common ground and best way forward, it is critical that you approach opportunities by “looking underneath the hood with a trust-but-verify” mindset.  This applies daily to procurement as we are constantly being pitched from a variety of sales folks. Information provided needs to be validated for accuracy of what is being sold and to confirm what is being purchased solves the business requirements.   So when you start to look at bringing operations of like-minded intent and structure, you’ve got to make sure that you don’t overlook what you think or what you’re accustomed to thinking is the best process – everything we touch has opportunity for improvement.

AB: So talk about your current role and what’s happening at TripAdvisor.

DK: Awesome stuff; I started at TripAdvisor just under four years ago. It was a new role – they didn’t have a procurement team. It’s been an amazing journey, both professionally and personally, being part of such a great organization. What I probably learned the most is that companies like Trip have highly talented people who are willing to just roll up their sleeves and help do whatever they can whenever they can.  It’s just fascinating to see how quickly things evolve, and how every day there’s something new to learn. Any day you’re not learning doesn’t put you behind, but it sure makes you have to catch up the next couple of days because the world is moving fast. There’s so much to learn and plenty ways to grow professionally – I truly feel very lucky to be part of the TripAdvisor team!

AB: As you look at the industry and the profession going forward, what are some of the things you see that are emerging and interesting, or some of the things that get you excited about working in the profession?

DK:  I’m excited about the profession because it seems like it’s more of a new / growth area than an established defined function.  What I mean by that is when you hear the word “procurement,” not everyone knows what it means; and for those that think they know I often get asked “what does TripAdvisor procure?” In my opinion, Procurement is simply explained as a core group of skills and experiences for which someone leverages and represent opportunities as an agent working on your behalf.  The core focus is to secure an outcome that provide sustainable value for shareholders and or customers.

Independent of the basic efforts outlined above, Procurement is becoming not only a trusted partner but gaining valuable insights into operational aspects that not everyone within an organization can see or synergizes.  Procurement professionals have a huge opportunity to acquire operational exposure and insights.  Providing such insights to other business units that may not know internal opportunities/solutions exist can be ten times more valuable than saving a few points on a contract.  I’m super excited about what procurement is becoming and will be in the future – value creation through process improvement, operational enhancements, and supplier value creation; combined driving meaningful shareholder and customer value.

AB: As an industry leader, what is some advice you can give to other professionals.

DK: One thing I love most about Trip Advisor is that we have a great culture, and a core focus on “acting like an owner.”   This allows my team to talk with people about how procurement can drive variety of benefits and solutions.  We see the operational enhancements that people don’t necessarily know exist because they either don’t know who to talk to, internally, or they don’t necessarily know where to start. Procurement can be that gateway into some really impactful things that will be meaningful to all folks – customers, shareholders, and employees.

AB: Thank you so much David!

DK: My pleasure, Andrew. I’m passionate for this space and I appreciate the opportunity to help others find Procurement and grow within their personal journey.

Post Script: Catch David’s keynote presentation, “GIG, Liquid, Agile Employee Procurement Opportunities,” on Day 1 at CPO Rising 2019 — next week!

At the dinner reception, Ardent Partners will present awards for outstanding performance and execution in the last year – “The CPO Honors” – to a variety of high achievers including Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders, procurement teams, and new this year: procurement solution providers and/or other experts. A new class of CPOs (two names will be announced next week) will also be inducted into the CPO Rising Hall of Fame based upon career achievements.

With a record number of nominations this year, the competition for the CPO Honors 2019 awards was extremely competitive. Making it to this far should be considered a huge achievement, in and of itself.

So, without further ado…

The CPO HONORS 2019 Finalists are:

The Innovation Award Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO and team that have used new and innovative strategies and approaches to overcome significant hurdles.

• Anu Saxena, Senior Vice President and Global Head for Hilton Supply Management (HSM) and the HSM Team
• Sprint’s Procurement Team

The Technology Excellence Award Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO and team that have leveraged technology solutions to impact procurement operations and performance.

• Andrea Greco, Chief Procurement Officer, CBRE
• Jorge Martín Torres Pérez, Strategic Procurement Director, Coca-Cola FEMSA

Best Team Performance Award Finalists: This award is presented to the procurement department that has excelled across the full scope of procurement operations to make a significant impact on overall enterprise results.

• Highmark Health Global Procurement & Payables Team
• Endurance’s Procurement Operations and Business Intelligence Team

The Leadership Award (CPO of the Year) Finalists: This award is presented to the CPO who has driven new performance heights as a result of their direct involvement and leadership and overall exceptional executive management.

• Kai Nowosel, Chief Procurement Officer, Accenture
• Greg Tennyson, Head of Global Corporate Services,  VSP Global
• Mike Morsch, Vice President Global Procurement & Supply Chain, CDK Global

Innovative Solution of the Year Finalists: Presented to the solution provider who most significantly impacted the market with innovative solutions.

• BuyerQuest
• Fairmarkit

Best Technology Partnership Finalists: Presented to the best partnership between a solution provider and their procurement team customer on to a technology deployment.

• ScoutRFP and Biogen
• Ivalua and Whirlpool

Our congratulations to all of the finalists!  We will see you soon!

Nisreen Bagasra

Nisreen will participate in the CPO Panel Discussion on Day 1 of CPO Rising 2019. I had the chance to catch up with Nisreen ahead of the event and learn more about her, her role, and what excites her about procurement.

Matthew York: Tell us a bit about your background – education and early career. How did you get started in procurement?

Nisreen Bagasra: I grew up in Mumbai, India, and came to the United States to pursue an MBA at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Upon graduating, I took a position as a consultant at Coopers & Lybrand and then joined Thermal Electron, where I developed a passion for procurement as an E-Sourcing Manager, running online reverse auctions and generating double digit savings for the company. Last year, I joined Veolia North America as Chief Procurement Officer — the first woman ever to hold the position within the company. In my role, I lead VNA’s procurement organization to maximize value and mitigate risk across the company’s supply base. My team manages national suppliers, strategic sourcing, contract negotiations and compliance of purchasing policies and processes. We are also responsible for VNA’s travel, fleet and purchasing card programs.

MY: What are you and your team focused on over the next 12-18 months?

NB: Veolia North America is at a pivotal point in its procurement journey. As a company, we have a solid foundation in place, and now we are in the process of building up the rest of the house. We are building a centralized team of sourcing experts in MRO, Chemicals, Waste Disposal, Temp Labor, Fleet, Facilities, and Technical products that can be leveraged across our 3 lines of business – Water, Waste, and Energy. Our focus is on simplifying processes and using technology to make it easy for our stakeholders to acquire the products and services needed to run their business efficiently, consistently, and competitively. We want to create an Amazon like experience for our diverse and widespread locations, for all their supply needs.

MY: What are some of the major changes that you’ve witnessed in the profession?

NB: One of the biggest changes I have seen within the profession is the increasing importance that company leaders are placing on procurement. Organizations no longer look at us as simply responsible for compliance functions and for putting controls in place, but also for delivering greater value through innovative and operational synergies. Chief Procurement Officers increasingly have a seat at the executive table. Ten years ago, you didn’t see that so much.

MY: What gets you excited about the future of procurement?

NB: What makes me excited about the future of procurement is the ability we have to make more happen with less by automating transactional purchasing using technology (Artificial intelligence and business intelligence) and leveraging data to provide us with greater insights into the supply chain. We are becoming much more pro-active in engaging early with our stakeholders in the capacity of a trusted advisor, and as the technologies continue to evolve, it’s going to be a big game-changer for our profession.

MY: That’s awesome, Nisreen — thanks so much and looking forward to seeing you later this month.

NB: Likewise, Matthew.

Two weeks ago, 120 global procurement executives descended on Boston for our Annual CPO Rising Summit. I’ve been organizing Chief Procurement Officer (CPO)-focused events since 2006 and I still find the entire process to be equal parts exhilarating, stressful, educational, empowering and highly-rewarding. I’ll share some of my thoughts with you here in today’s article. I plan to write a few more articles about the event over the final weeks of 2018 as does each analyst on our team. (Later today, I will also be co-presenting the “Voice of the CPO” webinar with fellow Ardent analysts, Matt York & Chris Dwyer that shares the key highlights and takeaways from the event).

The Age of Intelligence

In the “Age of Intelligence,” the procurement function is positioned to leverage its position at the hub of business operations to become a more productive, agile, and intelligent operation and use data analytics to drive better business outcomes. Each year, our Summit has an overarching theme we try to weave through. This year, I couldn’t think of a better topic for the leading minds and global experts working in and around procurement to tackle than operating a procurement function in the age of intelligence. Developing a new type of intelligence that will redefine the procurement function is an idea that emerged in both our annual state of procurement/CPO studies and in keynote presentations delivered at the Summit over the past three years.

With the rise of business process automation tools, cloud-based applications, mobile solutions, and connected devices the world has become increasingly data-driven, and procurement teams around the globe have an extraordinary opportunity to capitalize on it. Over the next few years, Ardent Partners predicts that a new type of intelligence is going to enable CPOs to view their operations differently and, by doing so, it is going to force these same CPOs to manage them differently. Chief Procurement Officers must hire new talent while developing their existing roster; institute new processes while refining existing ones; and invest in new technologies while enhancing existing tools.

Leading the Dialogue: 20 Global CPOs and Procurement Experts

At our 2018 Summit, we were excited and honored to have another world-class roster of 20 CPOs and procurement experts discuss how procurement can become more intelligent and transform operations and capitalize on the most significant opportunities in this new age. This year’s roster was more diverse and considerably younger than any previous Summit roster, and I have to say that the overall quality of the presentations, panels, and breakouts was as strong, if not stronger than what we’d seen previously (this is really saying something because we’ve had some amazing presentations). In particular, the main-stage keynotes on both Day 1 and Day 2 were outstanding from top to bottom.

These keynote presentations were delivered by a group of global CPOs including

• Steve Listzwan, the Head of Procurement (CPO) of Shire Pharmaceuticals and Ardent Partners’ 2017 “CPO of the Year.” His presentation, “Faster, Higher, Stronger: Building the Data-Driven Procurement Athlete,” was designed to help CPOs and Procurement Leadership Teams use internal data to get more from their staffs and ultimately build an elite team of high-performers. Steve’s innovative and thoroughly unique approach to staff development is to leverage different sources of data to both evaluate and improve staff performance and discuss the strategies that enable the best use of that data to build a better Procurement athlete and team.
• Chris Shanahan, VP of Global Procurement & Global Real Estate, Thermo Fisher Scientific, whose presentation, “0 to 60: Driving a High Velocity Procurement Transformation,” shared the key strategies and approaches that he has used to successfully drive procurement transformations at the “speed of business.”
• Meghan Truchan, Head of Procurement, Bain Capital, LP, whose presentation, “Procurement Transformation: One Size Does Not Fit All,” took a consultative approach to assessing and contrasting different procurement transformation scenarios and the approaches that make the most sense to take in each situation.
• Dan Warn, Director of Strategic Procurement (CPO), Wayfair, whose presentation, “Spend Therapy: Transforming Procurement In a High Growth Company,” looked at a new procurement delivery model that is many ways more representative of today’s business environment than the classic approaches.

I could go on and on — and my team and I will — but not today. We will continue to discuss and review this year’s CPO Rising Summit in a series of articles publishing over the next few weeks. So, stay tuned!

Summary

Procurement’s “Age of Intelligence” demands powerful analytics and deep insights. It demands agility. The ability to make better-informed decisions across an organization can and will be game-changing; I believe that this new intelligence coupled with agility are going to be the fundamental drivers that push procurement to the next level. But this all starts with the CPO and his or her mindset. If you are a CPO or report to one, please mark your calendars for October 29 and 30, 2019 for the CPO Rising 2019 Summit.

When I started working in this industry 18 years ago, there was a tremendous opportunity sitting in front of most procurement departments around the world. Fast forward to today, December 6, 2017, and the exact same thing can be said. I’d like you to think about that for a minute…. and, seriously reflect on what that means.

Over the years, my team and I have chronicled the progression (or rise) of the procurement profession. And, in many ways the role of the CPO has been a great proxy for the profession. It is fair to say that a majority of procurement organizations have successfully advanced their operations over the last 20 years, particularly in the last decade. Consider:

• In 2007, 54% of enterprises had a Chief Procurement Officer (by role or by title) in place.
• In 2017, that number is 91%.
• In 2007, only 37% of procurement departments were operating under a multi-year strategic plan.
• In 2017, that number is 87%.

These are strong and impressive trends and a clear indication that the profession has been moving in the right direction for a long time. Transformational is a word that we frequently use when talking about the type of change and impact that we’ve witnessed in procurement. Few would argue that procurement’s transformation has not been very broad-based nor increasingly visible within the enterprise and across supply chains. That said, there is much more still to be done. Consider:

Organizational alignment with executive priorities will also help strengthen the CPO’s bond to executives and earn confidence. More importantly, it helps increase the impact that procurement can make on what is most important to the business. Unfortunately, 62% of procurement organizations lack tight alignment between what they are working on and the overall objectives of the business. This is highly problematic because, as one Global CPO speaker said, “It does no good to be great at unimportant things.” And, it does no good to be focused on the wrong things. Just like your car, a procurement organization with poor alignment creates bigger internal problems by damaging other parts over time.

It becomes pretty clear that procurement is operating on a continuum. To bear this out, I went back and looked at the first CPO event that Chris Dwyer and I planned and hosted (in 2006). At the time, this was a preeminent event (it was held just before the industry event boom that now pervades seemingly every profession/industry today) with marquee CPOs presenting Best-in-Class case studies and bleeding-edge topics. I couldn’t find the agenda but I did have copies of all of the presentations. Here are a few of the titles (verbatim):

• Running a Global Sourcing Organization
• Contract Lifecycle Management: System Implementation in a Global Environment
• Procurement: A Critical Business Process in a Globally Integrated Enterprise
• Supply Goes Global…
• Direct Materials Sourcing

My presentation focused on defining and then making the case for the use of “spend under management” as an important procurement metric. I also moderated a panel discussion called “The Importance of Spend Analysis.” I think you get the point I am making: yesterday’s cutting edge ideas are today’s table stakes. Said another way, today’s CPO innovators are discussing tomorrow’s “low hanging fruit.” Globalization was huge in 2006 and it certainly helped the CPO rise in stature within the enterprise, but today globalization is taken for granted, even on the indirect side.

In ten years or maybe even five, will CPO Rising Hall of Famer, Tom Linton’s idea that “operating in real time is a strategic imperative for procurement and supply chains” be taken for granted and easily accomplished? Will David Natoff’s sophisticated approach to where and how procurement can move its “sphere of influence” to maximize its impact be “CPO 101?” Walt Charles and his team are doing things with Big Data that very few other procurement teams are doing but he also said, “What we’re doing may sound impressive, but it is within the reach of everyone in this room.”

The importance of understanding the industry’s latest trends and the ideas and strategies that today’s Best-in-Class CPOs are using to create a competitive advantage cannot be understated. Even CPOs in the greenest of greenfield opportunities need new and higher targets. CPOs must collectively examine industry best practices, discuss innovation and the latest technology trends, network with peers, and challenge the status quo. Our goal for this year’s CPO Rising Summit was for every attendee to leave engaged and empowered with new strategies and approaches that can begin to make a difference not only within their procurement department, but also within their enterprise.

Procurement’s future is exciting, and I daresay, the attendees of The CPO Rising 2017 Summit got a glimpse of it.

Heidi will deliver the first keynote presentation of CPO Rising 2019 on driving “Procurement with a Purpose” – on how the procurement function is uniquely positioned within many enterprises to drive positive social and environmental change across global supply chains. It’s a topic on which Heidi is well versed, having lived and worked abroad for so many years and having experienced globalization from both sides of the world. The following is a conversation between Heidi and Andrew Bartolini, in three parts, that has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Andrew Bartolini: Back when I started working in the technology sector (late 1999 – early 2000), global sourcing meant sourcing from China, right? But now it no longer means just China, right? There are pockets of capabilities in all these formerly-developing or currently-developing countries. That having been said, do you think that it is easier to do global sourcing now because the suppliers are more sophisticated? Or is it harder because you have so many more potential competitors or potential suppliers and regions to source from? More broadly, when you think of global sourcing back when you were right there with your feet on the ground until today, what are some of the things that have changed in that process and in those relationships?

Heidi Landry: Well, I would say, as with most things, Andrew, that it’s a bit of both. I think if I take what’s become easier, there’s a lot more data and information sources available to find new suppliers and to assess their financial viability then there ever has been. On the flip side, the demands on the suppliers have become increasingly complex. It’s certainly not a matter of just delivering their goods and services; it’s much more around the total value that they deliver, including their innovation capability, their level of sophistication, and social responsibility issues, their capabilities to offer added-value services, whether it’s managing inventory, just-in-time services, or local warehousing. So while it’s easier to find those suppliers and it’s easier to access them, at least at a preliminary level through the technology that we’ve got, the set of demands we’ve put on those suppliers has really increased.

So, for our suppliers, there’s a lot of complexity in developing that to meet our company’s standard, especially with a company like Johnson & Johnson, which has a huge footprint in social responsibility. We really pride ourselves on our “Big for Good” efforts in the sourcing arena. We want to work with suppliers who meet certain criteria, or at minimum are willing to develop and expand in certain areas, particularly focused on our social responsibility goals. And that’s already table stakes, along with having very strong quality systems, robust management systems, strong supplier reliability, et cetera. So, those demands have become very complex; and of course we work in a highly-regulated industry, which has increased the complexity of identifying and qualifying the correct trading partner.

So again, looking back it used to be quite simple of a task: five or six years ago we did not have an awareness of the impact we could make on social issues through procurement, but today we do. And we strive to put our spend to use according to the principles of how we behave as our own company.

AB: Yeah, that’s right. There was such a big shift that happened about 20 years ago in global sourcing, and it continues; but the shift is back within the enterprise. And what procurement has now is an ability to amplify its linkages to key corporate initiatives, like CSR; or in some cases they become much more directly tied to revenue.

Now let me ask you this: when you think about procurement in the 2020s, what are some of the things that get you or keep you excited about working in this field?

HL: Well, I’ve never gotten tired of procurement. I know I’ve been doing it for almost all of my career, and I find that it evolves very rapidly. We’ve just been leap-frogging forward in terms of our capabilities to automate basic transactions that allow us to focus much more on where we add value in the strategic sourcing space. So as I think forward a decade from now, clearly that will continue to accelerate.

I think that we’ll enter much more deeply into partnerships with some of our key suppliers, especially in the space of co-innovation, exploring higher-enabled innovation and additional value opportunities. Our collaboration with some of those strategic suppliers will become much deeper.

And then I think we’ll become much more expert on balancing and managing our risks and our external environment. So I think we’ll see many companies pursuing a more asset-light strategy, and therefore becoming more reliant on the procurement team to provide effective management of external manufacturing networks, understanding suppliers’ unique competencies, getting the best value. And so as we develop more in that space, I think we’ll see procurement move to more of an alliance-management role versus a more standardized supplier management role, in addition to the more traditional procurement roles we play in Direct materials and Indirect/Commercial arenas.

AB: Yeah, that’s great.

Join us next week as we complete the conversation between Andrew and Heidi on the changing nature of global sourcing.