Centrica Group Procurement Director David Wylie: Creating an Engaged Indirect Function #wpc

Driving procurement forward with understanding and communication of strategic value

Centrica group procurement director, David Wylie, took to the stage this morning to offer insight into how procurement in his organisation is taking the indirect function forward. A brief lesson on Victorian London’s history of crime and punishment preceded, and fed nicely into, an insightful discussion on the evolution of procurement beyond a process function, to one of real value to the business. 

The days of ’cranking the handle’ are dead: CPOs and their teams need to move beyond process and focus on people

Often, according to Wylie, "procurement teams hit the wall they build themselves". The ability to move beyond the most basic aspects of the function’s remit depends on its progress in the value chain, but shaking the label of business ’conformer’ - doing what is asked - to one of business ’educator’ - communicating the position of the function as expert - is essential to raising procurement’s profile. 

Procurement’s right to exist depends on its ability to deliver strategic value, beyond cost reduction, to the wider organisation

It really isn’t all about savings. The notion errs dangerously close to exhuastion at times, but its lip-service-like associations were quickly dispelled by Wylie, who explained that it’s up to procurement to consider what its real value proposition is, and then how it is messaging that value. This means not being afraid to challenge conventional wisdom; for example, questioning the extent to which ever-increasing annual savings, achieved until the very end of the contract, are actually a good thing. Surely, getting the best deal possible means picking off savings earlier on, to the point where there are none left come contract-end. 

Speak the language of the business: the best way to engage internal customers is to communicate real insight in an effective way

’Did you know...?’ are the three most important words in procurement’s vernacular, says Wylie. The function has to be a challenger, delivering real insight into supply markets, which must of course be anchored in an undertsanding of wider organisational goals and objectives.

"No one should know our supply markets better than the procurement function", he went on to say. Delivering what Wylie calls "relentless insight" is central; sucking in supply market intelligence across categories and in a joined-up way, and meshing this with internal knowledge is central to embedding procurement expertise in the business. While information is great, however, it’s nothing without insight. Without the ability to communicate with stakeholders in a meaningful way, the function will never get the buy-in it needs to move forward. 

from Procurement Leaders Blog http://ift.tt/1d1ozah
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