Whitepaper Wednesday - The Future of Procurement

Welcome back to another installment of Whitepaper Wednesday here on the Purchasing Certification Blog. Today, I’ll be reviewing a whitepaper entitled “Procurement Innovation Part I: What’s Next on the CPO’s Agenda?” from Denali.

The insights in this whitepaper are based on Denali’s interviews with a few dozen chief procurement officers. According to the whitepaper, these interviews set out to identify:
· Where CPOs will shift their focus during the next one to five years
· What external factors will impact the CPO’s agenda, and how
· Procurement’s most significant future challenges
· The CPO “wish list” for innovation in Procurement
· Likely Procurement innovations for the next three to five years

I was a little disappointed that the findings on these topics didn’t begin to get addressed until the next-to-last page of this 7-page whitepaper. And, then, was disappointed that not all of these points were addressed in this whitepaper. However, I did have to remind myself that it is Part I of a series, so that put things into perspective.

The meat of this whitepaper comes in the form of three “Major Procurement Innovation Themes.” The most powerful of these themes is the first one: “Expanding Procurement’s Value.”

The whitepaper reports that their panel of CPO’s feel that “Procurement is constrained by a singular focus on savings, and that their organizations can add much more value in other strategic areas to the business.” The whitepaper cites time to market, brand management, revenue generation, and product innovation as four examples of strategic areas where procurement can add more value and explains each.

While the whitepaper didn’t dive too deep on the future of procurement, it definitely got me eagerly anticipating Part II of this series which will go into more detail on expanding procurement’s value. If you’d like to get your own copy of this whitepaper – and get primed for what sounds like an exciting series – you can download a copy from Denali’s website.

To Your Career,
Charles Dominick, SPSM
President & Chief Procurement Officer
Next Level Purchasing, Inc.
Struggling To Find More Good Resources For Procurement Leaders?
Check Out Our Web Site's New Whitepaper Section At
http://www.NextLevelPurchasing.com/WPcharles