On 10 December 2025, Procurement Leaders members will come together virtually for the final CPO Connect call of the year, this time to learn about the strategy and work of Volker Purschke, chief procurement officer of Siemens Healthineers (pictured above).
The session is timely. The multinational MedTech company recently held its capital markets day, during which it launched an ambitious five-year corporate strategy called “Elevating Health Globally” and just last week it published its annual report.
It’s a key time of year for the company, so the call provides a great opportunity to hear how procurement will contribute to the broader strategy and how closely aligned Volker’s own strategy is with the wider corporate vision.
The annual report explains the importance of procurement to business outcomes: “Strategic procurement activities help promote success by making significant contributions in four distinct categories: productivity, quality, availability, and innovation.”
It also goes on to explain the scale and scope of the supply ecosystem – 38,000 suppliers and an exposure to a diverse group of products and services, from metals and magnets to sensors and energy.
But I would add a fifth distinct category of contribution to the ones listed in the report, and that’s sustainability. Littered throughout the document, which is combined with Siemens Healthineers’ sustainability report, are mentions of how important suppliers are to the company achieving its goal of achieving net-zero by 2050.
For example, the company has expanded its supplier engagement across 2025, driving transparency of suppliers’ current and future greenhouse gas impact while encouraging them “to set ambitious decarbonisation targets and adopt sustainable practices”. To help them do so, Siemens Healthineers is supporting suppliers with the “how” by providing online training to help drive progress.
It’s another reminder of just how entwined procurement and sustainability have become, as well as the central importance of procurement to wider enterprise success. By driving impact across productivity, quality, availability, innovation and sustainability, procurement is a unique contributor to shareholder value.
