With 2025 promising to be another year of uncertainty and CPOs seeking additional streams of value, we often hear from members of the Procurement Leaders community who say they are placing greater focus on enhancing productivity.
With the global economy looking strong despite the fact geopolitical and other risks are seemingly everywhere, it’s proving to be something of a paradoxical business climate. On the one hand, the largest economy in the world continues to celebrate fist-pumping growth; on the other, paranoia about market turmoil, returning inflation and disruptive forces continues to keep business leaders awake at night.
Faced with such conditions, it’s natural for CEOs and CFOs to keep a closer eye on the financial health of the business and ensure the foundations are solid. This, naturally, has implications for procurement, requiring a tighter focus on cost management, resilience and overall productivity.
A little over a week ago, one member CPO shared an in-depth case study that explored how he has been laser-focused on transforming his function with the goal of driving increased value and productivity. The transformation resulted in a significant reduction in headcount but delivered improved financial impact and customer satisfaction.
There were, of course, many enablers for this work, from the implementation of a new technology stack to simplified processes and changes to the operating model. But I was struck by one of the fundamental pillars of the programme – that of culture.
During the call, the CPO explained how evolving mindsets to remove fear and empower risk taking – all while instilling greater ownership – has helped his team to take the necessary step up. He demanded staff take back ownership of decision-making to remove latency and inefficiencies, as an example.
By focusing on culture to empower and energise the team, being transparent about the journey resulting in a smaller but higher-performing group, and articulating a bold and clear vision, the CPO had created a platform for success that everyone – whether they worked in procurement or not – could get behind.
With procurement in the midst of a function-defining ‘Transformation Era’, the session was a timely reminder to CPOs that changing the culture can be as pivotal as any tech deployment or org model redesign when it comes to delivering a step change in value delivery.
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