World Class Procurement - The British Perspective

July 18th, 2007 at 06:57am David Bush - Iasta

Recently, in their Spring 2007 issue, CPO Agenda ran an executive debate in London with the goal of answering the question What does World-Class Procurement Look Like?. The debate included Andrew Boyd of Britvic, John Collington of the Home Office, Andy Collopy at BP, Philippe Corregelongue of EMEA/Emptoris, David Gilmour at Pilkington, Ben Jackson at Network Rail, John Kirby at Barclays, Heather Rodgers at Centrica, John Taylor at AstraZeneca, Beverly Tew at the BBC, Michael Walsh at Home Retail Group, Ian Wilmot at Lloyds TSB, Rob Woodstock at Accenture, and Geraint John of CPO Agenda and offered some interesting insights from the other end of the pond into what qualifies as World-Class Procurement. I’ll summarize some of the key points from each contributor.

Andrew Boyd
It’s the effectiveness of the teams that work with the business to drive value that matters.

John Collington
To be seen as world class we have to take into consideration views from four constituent parties. The board level, the people within procurement, the customers within the organization, and the suppliers that deliver the goods and services. Also, JC Suggests that it’s the people within the function who sometimes are, and can become, world-class performers.

Andy Collopy
We have people who are technically proficient at what they do, whether they are good negotiators or they understand contracts, but that’s not enough anymore. Some of the softer skills are becoming much more important. Also, it’s about competitive advantage.

Philippe Courregelongue
Both the investment in enabling technology and the upskilling of procurement staff are key characteristics of organisations striving to achieve and maintain world-class performance.

David Gilmour
Learn a lot from your suppliers, depend on them to get it right, to keep the supply chain as short as possible, so that your customers get the product when they need it.

Ben Jackson
A substantial impact on business performance.

John Kirby
Driving change through the supply chain is a business process, it’s not a sourcing process or a procurement process, so it’s absolutely imperative that you have both the suppliers and your internal customers engaged.

Heather Rodgers
One of the biggest challenges is looking after the end-to-end relationship.

John Taylor
World-class procurement is about making a significant and valued and measurable contribution towards your organisation’s performance.

Beverly Tew
The key word for me is simplicity. The process should be so simple that people don’t mind going through it.

Michael Walsh
Our goal as custodian of the supply base is to make sure it delivers advantage to the business, relative to the best competitors we have.

Ian Wilmot
We need a business to be world class in how it procures from beginning to end. Procurement functions are potentially the ambassadors of change management to make that happen. It’s the way that process is executed by people that matters.

Rob Woodstock
Listening to suppliers always provides insights and new ways of doing things. Quite often the suppliers have got more to offer than procurement is taking advantage of.

In summary, world class procurement is supported by management, staff, customers, and suppliers. It’s driven by people who use best-in-class processes that are enabled by technology. It manages change internally and throughout the end-to-end relationship of the supply base and thrives on simplicity. And it’s true on this side of the pond as well.

According to the article, this was the first of multiple debates scheduled to take place this year. As more hit the wire, I’ll do my best to keep up.

Entry Filed under: General, Interviews, Supply Management Best Practices

 Digg It!  |   Save to del.icio.us