Time of the Buying Magician’s

Dave HenshallInfluence, Political

As procurement’s profile has soared, companies expectations of what they can deliver has become even more challenging. The CPO is now being asked to be accomplished in a growing list of skills and responsibilities: Financial, commercial, supply chain, legal Reduce cost, Increase revenue, Improve working capital, reduce tax Stimulate supplier innovation Enhance the brand Decrease supply chain complexity Reduce risk … Read More

Staying Centre Stage

Dave HenshallInfluence, Process

Once the current economic turmoil is over CPOs will need to develop new strategies to maintain executive attention. The economic downturn has highlighted the role procurement can play as a creator of value but many CEOs still view the function mainly in terms of cost savings rather than as enablers of growth. Having gained the attention of the board in … Read More

Procurement: Rising up the CEO Agenda

Dave HenshallInfluence, Process

Most CEO’s and CFO’s could only guess about how much their company spends on goods and services, and certainly could not express this in terms of meaningful supply market facing spend categories. The reason for this is that it is not a requirement for financial statements or accounts, despite most companies spending between 30 – 80% of their turnover on … Read More

The Brave CPO: Dominant Stakeholders

Dave HenshallInfluence, Power, Stakeholder Management

The Brave CPO Part 2 The Brave CPO: Dominant Stakeholders The Brave CPO: Dominant Stakeholders. That procurement must treat its stakeholders as customers in not in question. However, the notion that procurement must ‘Kowtow’ to these stakeholders for mutual benefit is absurd. While procurement must have a strategy to collaborate with stakeholders (touched upon in part 1 ) to build trust, … Read More

The Brave CPO: Managing Stakeholders

Dave HenshallInfluence, Stakeholder Management

The Brave CPO Part 1 The Brave CPO: Managing Stakeholders The Brave CPO: Managing Stakeholders. In previous post I have talked about procurement’s internal challenges managing stakeholders and balancing their needs and wants with business requirements. To do this procurement must analyse its own goals and objectives and identify the key relationships necessary to attain these. Even if you’re meeting your … Read More

Network Capable’ Buyers Needed:

Dave HenshallInfluence, Skills, Stakeholder Management

Network Capable Buyers Needed: Network Capable Buyers Needed: “Is there a cause-and-effect relationship between the level of supply management networking and the performance of the supply chain—and ultimately the business”?   1. Key notable points from the report: Supply management’s ability to prove its strategic relevance and impact on corporate performance depends on its degree of integration. However, other functions … Read More

Contributing to the CEO’s Agenda: Procurement and Growth

Dave HenshallInfluence, Strategy

Contributing to the CEO’s Agenda: Procurement and Growth Contributing to the CEO’s Agenda: Procurement and Growth. For the last year’s, growth and not cost savings has been on top of most CEO’s agendas. At the same time, they associate procurements contribution to the organization as delivering cost savings. This perception is clearly very damaging to procurements claim to play a … Read More

Negotiation: Managing the “Chumpion” Syndrome

Dave HenshallInfluence, Negotiation

The “chumpion” is a name give by sales people to the person(s) on the inside of the buyers organization that sales people befriend in order to reach out to his or her peers, dependents and superiors, to secure allies that have the ability to influence, move and marginalize procurement. The “chumpion” therefore, is at the heart of managing “back door … Read More

Beyond Cost Savings – Reprise

Dave HenshallInfluence, Process, Strategy

In an earlier post, I talked about the need for procurement leaders to move beyond cost savings. On my travels, it seems that many procurement leaders are still struggling to get their message across. So, if procurement cannot define its value then why should it be taken seriously by anyone else? To close the gap between procurement and the strategic … Read More