In this post I summarize the sixth installment of the CPO Agenda 2007 debate series – How can your function drive growth and innovation? that took place in Frankfurt on October 30. As always, my summaries of the previous debates on World Class Procurement – The British Perspective, The Next Wave of Savings, Global Sourcing – A Scandinavian View, What Capabilities Do You Need To Operate In A Global Market?, and Key Challenges of Tomorrow are still available in the e-Sourcing Forum archives.
The debate included, among others, Gregor van Ackeren of Grohe, Giuseppe Conti of Firmenich, Manfred Gamauf of Mondi, Ian Miles of Emptoris, Nima Motazed of Erste Group, Ulrich Piepel of RWE, Thomas Schnadt of Credit Suisse, Bettina Wietzel-Skakowski of Commerzbank, and was chaired by Geraint John, editor-in-chief of CPO Agenda.
As with the previous posts in the series, I am going to summarize key points from each contributor around the primary concept of innovation.
Gregor van Ackeren
If you want to be an innovation driver, having the right KPIs is essential.
Giuseppe Conti
We’ve challenged the company to introduce open innovation networks for our research.
I think what’s important is getting people with broad business skills.
Another factor is understanding how the innovation process works; if you are not aware of what is going to make an idea fly or not, then you are not going to be effective in picking the right ones from the ideas you are presented with.
Manfred Gamauf
You have to define what innovation is, because there are different levels.
Ian Miles
Innovation is about something that is new. It doesn’t have to be completely new, it’s just something that is new to your organisation.
A number of companies I’ve worked with are clearly identifiable as having an innovation culture. I’m convinced it’s far more straightforward for procurement to be innovative when they are working in a business that has one.
With innovation it’s not every idea you have, it’s every idea you commercialise. It’s about the management of innovation, how we reject the bad ideas, how we make sure we can nurture the good ideas and bring them through to completion.
Nima Motazed
For me innovation is doing something really new and getting competitive advantage.
Ulrich Piepel
We transformed our lead buying organisation into a sourcing organisation that included technicians. We said “Let’s try to standardise, let’s try to bring in innovations from suppliers, or let’s talk about our own ideas for innovation”.
Thomas Schnadt
You can’t just hide in a supply management box and say “cost savings is all that I do”. You have to be networked with your colleagues from all the other parts of the organisation and then you can say that innovation is part of daily life.
Bettina Wietzel-Skakowski
Innovation is also about bringing knowledge of markets – especially suppliers and technology – into the company.
I think we should distinguish between two things: continuous improvement – doing things better, faster, with more savings and so on – and real innovation. My definition of innovation is much more than continuous improvement.
To briefly summarize, innovation is about something that is new – it doesn’t have to be completely new, just new to your organization. It requires the right, innovative, people with the right business skills and openness to embrace new networks, new supplier ideas, and new ways of doing business. It’s about embracing and understanding the process, the culture, and the idea.
