Last week, Procurement Leaders released the CPO Compass 2025 – a unique piece of thought leadership that aims to challenge the assumptions that underpin leaders’ long-term planning. It’s a chance to step back and reflect; to look at the world differently.
This year we’ve explored three key topics that CPOs will have to navigate over the coming years: navigating the world’s accelerating “geoeconomic fragmentation” as trading blocs become increasingly common; understanding the balance and interplay between human and artificial intelligence; and, perhaps most pressingly, powering next-level productivity – an important focus area for many within the community.
Speaking to Procurement Leaders for the report, Warwick Business School’s Professor Nigel Driffield challenged CPOs to think differently about value. But not just what they deliver, but the timescale in which they deliver it.
To quote Nigel: “Taking a slightly longer-term perspective and recognising that developing a supply chain that’s a little bit more innovative, while it might not help next quarter’s bottom line, it might help next year or the year after.”
While it would be, at best, naïve and, at worst, highly negligent for CPOs to ignore their short-term goals completely, Nigel’s challenge brought to mind a recent project that HEINEKEN presented to members during a recent SRM and Innovation Strategy Cohort Call.
The challenge? Cutting the emissions produced by a fleet of one million fridges to cool drinks before customers buy them. A hackathon led the team to think about alternatives to refrigeration. Scouting led the team to two students in Argentina, who were developing a cooling on-demand solution with their startup, Chill It. After spending more than a year developing a prototype that spins cans at high speed in a patented cryogenic coolant, HEINEKEN worked with incumbent supplier Imbera over 15 months to bring the innovation to nine markets.
Success has taken collaboration, time, ingenuity and hard work, but the results have been astounding. A significant reduction in carbon emissions, surging sales and a “coolition” of drinks companies and OEMs shaping a more sustainable future. What’s more, these outcomes helped propel the team to victory in the Supplier Collaboration & Innovation category at the World Procurement Awards back in May.
HEINEKEN’s story begs one question: are you looking at your function’s challenges through the right lens? Make the time to find clarity and challenge your norms.
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