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Top tips from the 2015 World Procurement Congress

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1. Encourage your procurement team to hot-desk to help them become more influential and effective by working closer with their business partners.

2. Speak the language of the business: the best way to engage internal customers is to communicate real insight in an effective way.

3. Define procurement’s added value to internal stakeholders by illustrating an understanding that you are the expert.

4. Changing the corporate mind set requires a robust and "deliberate" communication programme from within the procurement organisation.

Improving cross-functional collaboration

5. Know when to avoid procurement-centric terminology and speak the language of the business.

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Challenge your function by taking a progressive approach to procurement strategy and encourage them to ask themselves, “What would a new CPO do?“.

2. Encourage your team to share one new insight every day as most procurement teams hit the wall they’ve built themselves.

3. Remind your team of the important role your function plays: Procurement’s right to exist depends on its ability to deliver strategic value, beyond cost reduction, to the wider organisation.

Motivating your team

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Don’t underestimate the importance of letting your supplier feel that your contract is not just another cost cutting policy.

2. Markets are changing from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market. Keep in mind how this will force you to change the way that they interact with key suppliers.

3. Collaborating with suppliers and seeking an external perspective is of paramount importance.

Supplier Engagement

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Guaranteeing suppliers a generous margin in return for innovation will greatly increase the likelihood of success.

2. Innovation opportunities are often missed by businesses by simply not listening to their suppliers.

3. Consolidated targets should be set for key stakeholders, R&D, Operations and Sourcing in order to encourage innovation.

4. Procurement’s role in innovation should be to "help find it", facilitating suppliers and R&D.

Driving Innovation

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Increased cost pressure on procurement translates into a greater amount of pressure to implement category strategy across all regions of operation. Try relocating category managers from head office to regions of operation in order to perpetuate category strategy.

2. Take a 360 degree approach when re-energising your procurement strategy, considering both internal and external perspectives.

3. Rather than take small steps towards your strategy goals, be bold when carrying out changes.

Implementing procurement strategy

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. CPOs need generalists, rather than technology experts, on their teams who understand and can contribute to stakeholder dialogue.

2. Ageism affects procurement and works both ways – too young and too old. It is essential to value people for their talent rather than anything else.

3. Invest in building capabilities beyond procurement because procurement is a business skill.

Developing a strong procurement team

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Treat the cloud as a category. CPOs need teams who understand the cloud market and how to communicate within it, with both internal and external stakeholders.

2. The development of new technologies is happening at a rapid pace and this is disrupting the way businesses and procurement operates. Don’t fear this change but embrace it.

3. Investment is needed in cyber security to prevent your business being open to risk.

Embracing and utilising technology

World Procurement Congress top tips

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1. Keep in mind that transformation is not something that ends: it is a continuous journey that requires ongoing investment in team and performance.

2. Always transform to be agile, not to a certain situation.

3. Don’t be afraid to look outside of your industry for new innovations and other vehicles for driving the function forward.

Undergoing a successful transformation

World Procurement Congress top tips

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Looking for more insight?

Join us at one of our upcoming events for in-depth peer discussions, inspiring key notes, topical breakouts and engaging roundtables.

www.procurementleaders.com/events