It’s always a nervous time for us at Procurement Leaders as we round the New Year and start preparing for some milestone activities in the coming months.
Our Americas Procurement Congress in March, the World Procurement Congress in May and, the cause of most of those nerves, the World Procurement Awards that follow WPC.
Why the nerves? Waiting for the community to submit entries to our awards programme is one of those anxiety-riddled periods: Will people invest the time? Will the numbers be at the right level? Will the excitement continue through another year?
Happily, the World Procurement Awards 2025 are set to be our biggest ever – as deadline day passed last week, we received a record number of entries. Clearly, the community is doing some excellent work, and teams want the opportunity to celebrate their achievements!
Throughout this year, we’ll be making a bolder effort to share insight from our awards entries – giving members the opportunity to peek behind the curtain and see how their peers are driving value – so watch out for that. But one observation at a very early stage of the judging process, is just how many organisations have undertaken – or are in the midst of – a significant transformation.
Approximately 17% of the entries we’ve received were for the Transformation category, a sure sign the function is undergoing a significant period of change as its strategic importance continues to increase.
While we must keep in mind the entries will be showcasing transformations that have mostly been completed, anecdotally, the number of conversations I’ve had with CPOs who describe this phenomenon as a current state is fascinating.
We are in an era of transformation, fuelled by several driving forces: the arrival and early days of artificial intelligence; the overhang from Covid-19 and other supply chain shocks; and heightened executive and board-level interest in the function leading to greater scrutiny and an increase in CPO churn.
I believe this period will be seen as one that defines the function. As CPOs you must ensure you keep up and embrace the change and, at the same time, pave the way for the new generation of talent.
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