It’s amazing how revitalising a few days in the company of a group of procurement leaders can be. Guaranteed to recharge the inspiration batteries, face-to-face time with members is what’s best about being in this role.
And being in Singapore for the Asia Pacific Procurement Congress last week left me in no doubt that the region continues to be a powerhouse of energy, innovation, creativity and growth.
The region keeps pushing to shift the global dynamic and hearing from the likes of Singaporean internet giant Grab, Japanese drinks behemoth Asahi and Australian energy company Origin, it was clear how much impact CPOs are having.
Stories of transformation, technology implementation, business alignment and new operating models were in rich supply – “if you don’t have business partners in your team, go out and get some,” advised Origin Energy CPO Nikki Symonds – while the feeling of optimism and opportunity was tangible.
All of that said, one of the main focus areas of the Congress – artificial intelligence – was clearly still a work in progress for everyone in the room (and everyone else, to that point). In fact, I’ve developed a new word to sum up to the challenge: AInxiety. AInxiety is the feeling that one has been left behind when it comes to the rollout and application of artificial intelligence.
This is a fair emotion for the average C-level business executive to feel. After all, we’ve heard how transformational the technology is and, with billions of dollars of venture capital being pumped into the sector every week and headlines of its power screaming at us every day, it’s easy to assume that we are already living in an AI-enabled economy.
But that’s not true. As the former head of digital transformation at Meta, Amer Iqbal, shared during his opening keynote, only one-third of companies have done anything with AI at all and those that are experimenting are “massively underestimating the transformative power of the technology”.
So, if you are still scratching your head about AI, a few words of advice courtesy of the Congress. First, force a mindset shift from one of “permission” to one of “forgiveness”, and from “wait and see” to “pilot and amplify”. Grab had a company-wide, eight-week sprint as an example.
Second, ask yourselves meaningful questions such as: “What might procurement look like if we have access to unlimited human-like intelligence?”
Third, create a framework. Kaye Sumatra, CPO at Grab, views the application of AI in procurement through four broad lenses: content creation and ideation; data and documentation analysis; real-time market intelligence; and process automation. She then cross-fertilises with the various stages in the procurement process to seek out opportunity.
Fourth, view data as the new oil – just as oil needs refinement, data needs to be cleansed and maintained so it can be trusted before it becomes really useful.
Finally, don’t allow yourself to think that everyone else is way ahead – that’s just the AInxiety trap.
Recognising the best of the best in APAC
A big congratulations to Cassie Mackie, CPO of Etihad Airways, for being awarded Asia Pacific CPO of the Year at last week’s Asia Pacific Procurement Awards in Singapore while also picking up the Team Award.
At the prestigious awards ceremony that brought our Congress to a close, other winners included Asahi Global Procurement (Excellence and Supplier Collaboration & Innovation), Schneider Electric (Risk & Resilience and Environmental & Social Impact) Suntory (Digital Impact) and Ivalua (Solution Provider).
Congratulations also to CBRE and MTN, who were highly commended in the Digital Impact and Team categories.
Speaking of awards, If you want to earn recognition for an outstanding project, team or individual within your function then you have a little over a month to enter the World Procurement Awards 2025.
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