Biggest blocker I see with procurement teams & leaders?

Biggest blocker I see with procurement teams & leaders?

It's not hitting their savings targets, rather it's that they struggle to drive change.

Far too often it's attempted through:

- Control
- Policing
- Restriction

All related to procedural burdens.

But that's reactive.

And more often than not points to problems deeper within the function, usually around influence & decision-making.

In that, they don't have any.

A leader or team that relies on mechanisms that impede or prevent colleagues from buying what they need to drive innovation & the business forward, has already lost.

They've been positioned not as collaborators, but instead as competitors.

And within their own company.

To drive change and influence the business you need to work with colleagues, partner and collaborate, together.

The goal is to support, guide, assist and ultimately building an ecosystem that proactively creates a space for the organization to buy well.

That doesn't happen alone. Nor combatively.

The best procurement pros are known leaders, the one's who build with, not against the flow of business.

Lead from the front.

Look, I know those controls, compliance, risk reduction features and guardrails are in place for a reason, I get it.

But an over reliance on them as the way to go about doing procurement, is not. At all.

It sets up the function, from the start, to be seen and interacted with in a negative manner. There's inherent friction. And people both see AND feel it.

Working with a team that's so embedded in process challenges isn't exactly fun.

And so you end up with an organization that looks and finds ways NOT to use your 'service.'

I say 'service,' because it's hardly that. It's a sentence... as in it feels like death.

You know how people fear public speaking more than dying... that holds true for trying to purchase something they need to excel at their work

Food for thought.