Search
Procurement professionals often talk about value. A mature procurement organization should create value. A supplier relationship should create value. A digital procurement project should create value. A sourcing project should create value for the business. A buyer should not only reduce cost, but also improve quality, speed, reliability, innovation, risk control, sustainability, and customer value.…
When you start working as a buyer, one of the first challenges is not the sourcing strategy, the negotiation, or the supplier meeting. It is the language. Procurement work is full of abbreviations. In one meeting, someone may talk about a PR, PO, RFQ, MOQ, SLA, KPI, TCO, ERP, and ESG as if everyone already…
Having a Supplier Code of Conduct is no longer unusual. For many companies, it is expected. Customers, owners, regulators, employees, and business partners increasingly expect companies to know how suppliers behave in areas such as human rights, labour conditions, health and safety, environment, anti-corruption, data protection, and business ethics. But this creates a practical procurement…
Most procurement work is built on one important assumption: there is competition in the supplier market. When several suppliers can meet the requirement, the buyer can compare offers, negotiate, challenge pricing, switch supplier, improve terms, and create pressure for better performance. But what happens when there is no real competition? This is the problem buyers…
How to prepare for a job interview in Procurement. Key Questions Every Procurement Professional Should Ask to assure continuous professional growth.
In procurement, the Chief Procurement Officer is not only responsible for purchasing performance. The CPO is responsible for making sure procurement helps the business solve important problems: controlling cost, securing supply, managing supplier risk, improving quality, supporting innovation, developing the procurement organization, and creating value across the company. This is why the CPO agenda must…
Innovation in Procurement: As a senior procurement director, I have seen firsthand the role that innovation can play in driving success in the organization.
Taking over a new commodity, supplier range, or group of purchase parts can look simple from the outside. The responsibility is moved from one buyer to another, contact names are updated in the system, and the new buyer becomes “in the line of fire”. In reality, this is often where operative purchasing problems begin. An…
In operative procurement, a buyer may send a purchase order and believe the order is under control. But until the supplier has acknowledged the order, there is still uncertainty. These questions matter because many delivery problems start with an unconfirmed or incorrectly confirmed purchase order. A purchase order acknowledgment is therefore not only an administrative…
In operative procurement, many delivery problems start before the purchase order is even sent. The supplier may not have enough material, production capacity, labor, or transport availability because the buyer has not shared future demand in time. This is where supplier forecasts become important. A forecast gives the supplier visibility of expected future demand. It…
