Implementing Your Vision For 2025 And Beyond

How can you best position your people, process and technology to implement your vision for 2025 and beyond?

This was the focus of a CPO session on the recent ProcureCon Asia Virtual Summit joined by:

• Jorge Juan Munoz Fernández VP, Group Procurement Telenor
• Amita Khurana CPO Tata Steel BSL
• Elvi Chaerani VP of GA & Procurement DANA Indonesia

Realising A Vision For The Future Of Procurement

For Tata Steel BSL, the vision of the organisation is to become a global benchmark leader in terms of corporate citizenship and value creation. These are driving principles for the group’s day to day operations.

As far as value creation is concerned, Procurement aligns with the principle through savings and cost leadership. In corporate citizenship, Procurement works in line with initiatives such as maintaining a carbon-neutral supply chain, to support local marginalised communities.

Corporate values and culture are also key drivers of DANA Indonesia’s vision for the future of procurement: to make the locally based organisation a world class leader, capable of elevating Indonesia to the status of a caste-less society

A mindset for continuous growth is essential to this vision. This mindset fosters transparency and open lines of communication between members of the procurement team. In this regard, the company’s values and culture must be ingrained within the DNA of the procurement function. This then enables culture and values to become infused into operational areas such as performance measurement, process implementation, and team collaboration. It also inspires teams to remain engaged with the vision, and committed to taking the necessary actions to realise it, and move Procurement forward.

Developing The Procurement Talent And Leaders Of The Future

A strong corporate culture and values are important factors in developing the skills required for Procurement to remain aligned with the vision and objectives of the enterprise. However, there are other ways to nurture procurement talent within the organisation.

The structure of the procurement function itself has a bearing on how well people are aligned within the department, and across functions of the enterprise. This may typically require the creation of diverse and specific procurement elements to address various aspects: Centre of Excellence, Business Analytics, Vendor Development, etc. Assigning specific responsibility to certain people for managing relationships with external and internal stakeholders may also be a consideration

At the same time, it may be helpful to introduce mechanisms to reduce the transactional load on procurement staff (automation, delegation to other departments, etc.), to enable them to concentrate on value creation.

A 70:20:10 framework can provide a formalised structure for skills acquisition. 70% represents on the job training. 20% refers to cross-functional collaboration, special projects, and task-specific assignments. The final 10% represents enterprise-wide formal training programmes in technologies, techniques, and best practices. By elevating the capabilities of Procurement, this kind of skills acquisition framework increases the contribution of the profession to the organisation as a whole.

Creating An Optimal Balance Of Skills And Knowledge

With a structural framework and formalised training in place, the issue then arises of how to balance soft and hard skills, while also taking into consideration new trends and operating models within the industry. At the same time, there is a need to foster a cross-functional environment of collaboration that enables procurement professionals to grow.

For procurement leaders in the digital age of the pandemic, it is unrealistic to rely on rigid controls with regard to timing and geographical location.

In a borderless, virtual, and 24/7 environment, it’s more important for leaders to act as facilitators who can enable their workers to lead themselves. This can be through provision of the necessary technologies and resources, and communication of the information and business knowledge they need to operate effectively, from wherever they may be.

Leadership therefore occurs by contact, rather than control -- so long as the workers are prepared to act responsibly, in line with the structure and values of the organisation.

Restructuring And Redefining Procurement

Procurement has evolved from being purely transaction based, to a function that now focuses on delivering value. There is now also an increased emphasis on key processes, such as risk management, contract management, and supplier relationship management.

The onus on procurement leaders is now to identify those processes which are most relevant and critical to the organisation, and to concentrate on them -- if necessary, at the expense of other processes with lesser importance.

Leaders must also remain aware that conditions will change over time, perhaps bringing back into focus processes that have been pushed into the background.

Effectively communicating these changes and priorities -- internally, and to relevant external stakeholders -- is key to keeping everyone on the same page, and empowering all players to fulfil their respective roles in moving Procurement and the organisation forward.

Key Priorities For Procurement Leaders

How can you best position your people, process and technology to implement your vision for 2025 and beyond?

Wrapping the discussion up, the procurement leaders all agree that the following bullet factors should be of key focus:

• Fulfilling the primary function of delivering what is required, when it is needed
• Supporting your people, so they can deliver what is required
• Sustainability and Resilience
• Safety and Risk Management
• Compliance
• Becoming more Customer-Focused
• Becoming Digitally Agile

To learn more about this discussion and other insights shared, download the full report ''Winning In The New Normal And Future Proofing Your Procurement Strategy'' here.