The Procurement Revolution: On the Road to Strategic Relevance

Here you can listen to my audio presentation on supply market intelligence and strategic relevance that was available on day four, September 29, of the week long Procurement Revolution (September 26 – 30).

Introduction:

Waiting for organization-wide C-Level decision makers to seek out procurement for solutions on achieving greater competitive advantage has been and will continue to be a dead end road. Procurement should be targeting efforts that directly contribute to moving the organizations’ competitive strategy forward. These efforts should focus on positioning itself to be able to respond quickly to – and push aggressively – the intelligence required by the organizations of today who are competing in a hyper-competitive, global environment. The good news is that procurement, in its unique role and positioning in the organization, actually provides great opportunity. To grab this great opportunity, a change in mindset, a whole new way of thinking is required.

The early chapters in the anthology, Leadership: Essential Writings By Our Greatest Thinkers, edited by Elizabeth D. Samet, are presented via a sequence of fundamental assumptions. These assumptions about leadership can help in visualizing procurement’s journey to a new mindset. The assumptions are: Studying the System, Emulating Heroes, Risking Revision, and Knowing the Way…