Do You Know Specifically Where 80% of Your Spend is Going? I often start a conversation with a client or prospective client with this question: “If you knew where 80% of your spend was going, how much better would your results be?” Almost every person has responded that they would love to have better spend […]
What Rogue Spend Can Tell You Rogue spend can tell you some things about your organization you may not have realized. Finding out may be painful as it may indicate shortcomings in procurement performance. Here are some of the issues I have been told to “justify” rogue spend: Frequent quality issues A decrease in on […]
Do You Know What Your Organization is Buying? Fundamental to strategic sourcing is knowing what your organization is buying. Which vendors are vetted and who has the authority to buy from them is equally important. These may seem like basic information needs but many companies simply don’t have it readily available. There are usually a […]
Procurement Factors Other than Price that Impact Competitive Advantage Procurement professionals want to achieve measurable savings but there are many factors other than price that impact competitive advantage. As a buyer I love to get a very competitive bid for a product or service. Then I put my procurement hat on and list out the […]
The Most Important Resource in Procurement Success is Time When I ask procurement professionals what resource they would like to have more of, the answer is almost always time. This used to surprise me. It doesn’t anymore. It doesn’t really matter how good your team is because if they are exhausted from working long hours […]
A Simple Question on Controllable Spend – Will Worrying Help? I was at a presentation last week and the speaker asked the audience this question: “Will worrying help you achieve your stated goals?” CFOs and CPOs have plenty of things to worry about when it comes to controllable spend. Unfortunately worrying about a problem never […]
Stakeholder Participation – Can You Get the Level You Want and Need? How often are you frustrated by a lack of stakeholder participation in your sourcing events? Based on my experience, full participation is the exception rather than the rule and less than full participation is the norm. Rather than write about incomplete specs, changing […]
Chaos or Efficiency in the Procurement Process? How much is this Hurting Your Bottom Line? Entrepreneurs can operate in chaos and many thrive in it. As a business grows systems are developed to manage key parts of the operations. Procurement is often the last area to be addressed. Based on my experience many businesses even […]
Sticking to tried-and-true business processes has allowed your business to blossom from a struggling startup to a medium-sized company. Yet there is something holding you back from making that big leap to the next business level. You’ve hired the right workers. You’ve developed the right products and services to meet the changing supply and demand needs of your customers. Yet your bottom line has stalled even while your operational costs have steadily increased.