The procurement profession has changed dramatically in the past 20 years, but many of the issues and challenges facing CPOs have remained stubbornly and frustratingly consistent. They include: Why doesn't procurement have a seat on the board? Why does it have a reputation for only caring about price? Why is it often excluded from strategic business debates and decisions? And why does it find it so hard to make strategic supplier management work properly?
[2]These are complex questions with no simple answer. However, we believe that there is a common theme to each—"value". Specifically, the ability of CPOs (and the procurement profession at all levels) to recognise, create and release value for their organisations, and to be recognised by their peers and the wider business for their ability and skill in doing so.
Hal Movius [3] and Tom Kinnaird (WPP Head of Commercial and Procurement Services) published this article in the Autumn 2008 issue of CPO Agenda. Read the complete text of this article by downloading the PDF [2], courtesy of CPO Agenda.
To contribute greater value, Chief Procurement Officers need to develop and promote a more sophisticated approach to negotiation that considers all parties’ interests.