Blogs

Designing a world class strategy, significantly shaping and influencing markets with a multi-billion pound spend, providing strategic category direction and creating centres of expertise and excellence. These are just some of the activities carried out by specialists working at the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), an organisation that procures common goods and services for ce...

1st Executive's interview with the Automobile Association's Head of Procurement - Daniel Cox Following the appointment of Simon Breakwell (ex Uber & Expedia) as CEO in August 2017, The AA has commenced a complex transformation programme focused on revolutionising the customer experience through investing in and embracing new technologies. Procurement are heavily involved in ...

Look around your procurement department – how many members of staff are millennials? If the answer is very few then how is your procurement department going to remain sustainable and what is your organisation doing to attract and retain those professionals who will make up its future? According to a recent study by EY , by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be made up of...

By now, you’ll already know that the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is imminent. At present, data protection regulations typically classify suppliers as data processors, rather than controllers, meaning they have no primary liabilities. However, GDPR will make suppliers directly liable and also make it mandatory for data controllers to include s...

Threats to supply chains are nothing new. From cyber-attacks and floods to earthquakes and IT outages but now there are new threats on the horizon – that of trade wars, protectionism and tariffs. Consequently, according to a recent supply chain strategies report in The Times, the emphasis on risk management is going to sharply increase in the months ahead – and the approach ...

Procurement and sourcing processes have become increasingly digitised in recent times and next generation technology is set to transform the sector. In fact, consultancy firm The Hackett Group’s 2017 Key Issues Study found that 84% of procurement organisations believe digital transformation will fundamentally change the way their services are delivered over the next three to...

It’s a common complaint among procurement teams that their department is not seen as strategically important and their work is not on the CEO’s agenda. While it’s certainly true that the C suite generally lacks understanding about how procurement impacts on the total performance of the business, you can’t simply wait for senior management to take notice. Procurement teams ne...

In my last blog I outlined how innovation and the demand for sustainable operations are changing the business world, putting greater pressure on procurement teams to define and embed a procurement strategy that is future proof. But where should professionals start when it comes to enabling this? The Procurement Director is a member of the executive team and so should co-dete...

In this fast-paced business world, a firm’s ability to adapt and change quickly is crucial. Companies are facing a constant shift in focus and regularly need to introduce major transformation as client and customer demands evolve. Innovation, it would seem, is the keyword of the world today, and businesses need to equip themselves to manage this change and sufficiently meet ...

As a specialist procurement and supply chain recruiter, we are acutely aware of trends in the recruitment of procurement professionals. We recently conducted an analysis of over 300 job specifications to find out which are the skills most sought by employers; negotiation, networking, influencing, specialist category knowledge and internal promotion came out on top. While the...