Leadership Procurement under construction.

The position of Procurement in an organisation isn’t an end in itself, but depends on the dynamics in the supply chain. Procurement must participate in the board or not has been a container discussion for years. Precisely because of the exponential growth of dynamics in the supply chain, the discussion will take on a clearer direction. When nothing happens in the supply chain, Procurement has no added value in determinating the strategy of the organisation. When, as it actually is for many organisations, the developments in the supply chain in the area of technology, economics and geo-politics are crucial for the development of successful businessmodels in the market, it’s remarkable when Procurement isn’t contributing to the organisation’s strategy.

Procurement can be positioned extremely well to direct the optimal cooperation with external organisations to realise the best customer value. To this end Procurement needs the internal position that facilitates Procurement to impact the strategy of the organisation. In traditionally Anglo Saxon topdown structured organisations Procurement has to rise above the Procurement pillar and in bottom up structured organisations (Rhineland model) the focus will be on the realization of the cross-connections with the other disciplines in the organisation.

To some extend Procurement has to grow in their leadership role to realise the best value for organisations today and tomorrow.

The 5 most important competences against which procurement leadership will be assessed are:

• Developing connections and position in the organisation
  • To what extend are you a businesspartner of the board based upon your business, financial and commercial insight and are you supported effectively by the board? To what extend is Procurement on the agenda of the board? To what extend do you participate cross-functional projectteams and decision-making with regard to make or buy, market proposition, risk planning, product development and or acquisition activities?
• Team development
  • Do you have a clear strategy with regard to talent development of the procurement organisation and have you realised to budget to execute? Are you able to make the procurement organisation interesting for high potentials?
• Value creation
  • Do you come up with innovative initiatives and solutions with bottomline impact and do you show leadership in changemanagement?
• Deliver results
  • Do you take responsibility for the results and do you work fast from a sense of urgency and do you take risks based upon adequate information?
• Operational excellence
  • Are there continuous improvement programmes for Procurement and do you have a clear digitisation agenda?

Development of Procurement starts with the development of the leadership of Procurement. A necessity that is becoming increasingly obvious in today’s world.

www.di-mens.nl