‘An illusion of best procurement practice’?

Perhaps it was the fact that this reports findings strongly align to the Purchasing Practice lines of practice that it caught my eye among the daily swirl of procurement news. Or is it just an illusion of best procurement practice?

Large IBM Study Identifies Key Characteristics of Best Procurement Organizations

The report was based on survey responses from more than 1100 senior procurement executives in companies across the globe greater than $1 billion in size, making it one of the largest such studies ever.

The reports findings have been known and published in similar survey’s for years, yet there are still many organizations to convince to take action. So what is still missing?

For me there was one slice of excellence omitted from the report – the ability to directly measure procurement’s contribution to company performance. It is one thing to show that leaders outperform laggards and another to actually track, monitor, measure and report on the contribution of procurement’s activities directly to the company results – however this is measured.

In my experience, this is what truly sorts those organizations committed to procurement excellence from those who simply have ‘the illusion of best practice’.

It is for the former organization that we develop our lines of practice.

Nuff said …

What are your views on the reports findings?