Savings, risk, CSR, talent. Advances in these areas may well be made, but they will fall on deaf, or worse no, ears if you fail to earn and then keep the so-called seat.
Without a doubt, this question of recognition, for me, is where the real debate lies.
As a topic of discussion, it speaks directly to the aspirational feeling evident in contemporary procurement discourse. It’s strategy. It’s the stuff we want to be talking about in moments of respite from the stuff we have to talk about. It gets to the heart of the modern strategic challenge, which is to elevate the function’s status to one of trusted advisor to stakeholders and the business.
Savings, risk, CSR, talent. Advances in these areas may well be made, but they will fall on deaf ears if you fail to earn and then keep the so-called seat.
So that’s why we talk about it, but what does it actually mean? It can appear a bit abstract.
At Procurement Leaders’ Financial Services Focus Day, held last week in New York, winning organisational influence featured as part of a lively three-pronged debate. So, naturally, the first question was: what table?
The question elicits different responses depending on who you ask, so the first thing to note is that it depends on governance structures. For many, though, they and their teams required seats at more than one table because of the way their stakeholders were structured —be it by geography, category or line of business— was more complex than simply having a board and then no influencers of consequence below.
Despite the different scenarios that businesses saw here, it was agreed, that technology was key among the battlegrounds for the function in this sector, given the large share of spend commanded by the IT categories. Thinking about how you might arrive at a place where you’re able to bend the ear of the CIO, then, is a good place to start.
The next question is how. And this, for me, is where it gets interesting: it’s a question of talent, and of those ‘soft’ skills whose importance are now beginning to earn proper recognition. I don’t think anyone believes that a ‘silver bullet’ answer to this problem exists, and debate continues over what ‘right’ looks like in respect of the balance between these and the more explicit, technical capabilities.
One without the other is probably useless, and you’re not going to want your IT expert on schmoozing duty; just as those blessed with the gift of the gab are not who you want in the room when the tough, technical questions need answering.
Some farm the technical activity out to managed service providers, and look to develop strategic capabilities in-house. In a small team, this is probably the way to go, but those with a little more resource to play with typically like to maintain a more varied mix. In fact, it was agreed that having that deep expertise among your team and at your disposal was key among the ways procurement can prove its worth.
Finally, it’s about keeping the seat and the influence that your team earns. There’s not much point in striving to get there if you’re not committed to staying. So, what is the function bringing to the table? It’s a question of deploying and agreeing on aligned metrics; of what value procurement is delivering.
Savings will be at the top of the list, probably —most people agree that this is what gives procurement its voice in the first place— but savings are not infinite. Underneath must follow a simple, relatable set of metrics to focus the discussion on procurement’s real strategic deliverables. By relatable, we mean aligned with business strategy, and this comes from having an understanding of that business, of procurement’s internal customers, and what they are actually looking for from their relationship with the function. In that sense, financial services has more in common with sectors that have a much larger bill of materials than might be obvious at first glance.
The Industry Intelligence Channel for financial services is a new intelligence and collaboration service dedicated to your unique, sector-specific procurement challenges. This new channel provides deep category and strategy expertise, market intelligence and analysis designed to inform planning and best practice for those in the FS sector.
For existing Procurement Leaders members interested in this service, contact Joanna Nightingale at: j.nightingale@procurementleaders.com
For non-Procurement Leaders members, contact Andrew Deakin at: a.deakin@procurementleaders.com
This article is a piece of independent writing by a member of Procurement Leaders’ content team.
from Procurement Leaders Blog http://ift.tt/1GK4fpN
This content was assembled for you by the YQ Matrix platform
The views expressed in this post and throughout the series are the autor's own and not intended to reflect the views the YQ Matrix platform, its users or any associated organisations.
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