To reach that charismatic point, where procurement is as natural as breathing, is a dream for many CPOs. With industry giants like IBM, Apple, and Unilever, resorting to crowd sourcing, it has become even more critical for procurement teams to devise procurement strategy to simplify the whole process. Outsourcing of innovation has become the rule of the day, and though on the one hand it does come across as a challenge – the inherent opportunities which outsourcing provides are quite interesting.
Can innovation and procurement go hand in hand?
One of the most under-explored areas in the procurement process is adoption of innovation in building the buying strategy. Perhaps this is because of the myth that procurement strategy and innovation are miles apart, and bringing them together is a rather strenuous job. While the fact remains that – innovation has always been a core element of every procurement plan. All that is needed is a clear-cut channeling of the in-house and outsourcing requirements.
Steps to achieve innovation centered procurement strategy
The goal of innovation centered procurement is to bring down the final cost to the company, by intelligently outsourcing work to the third parties. This can be diligently done by:
- Inculcating the ethos of procurement entrepreneurship in the team
- Assessment of the capacity to bring in innovation in the plan
- Drawing a clear road map for innovation centered procurement
- Working on capacity building for actions needed on effective procurement process
Most category managers will agree on the role of mindsets and behavior in improving the overall spend analysis management of the organization. Perhaps this explains the increased importance being given to imbibing innovation as a value among procurement analysts. Innovation is thus not an external element, rather something which the next generation of procurers need to inbuilt as a part of their strategic thinking.
SpendEdge – Procuring in the most innovative manner
Years of experience, backed with in-depth knowledge of our expert team of procurement analysts shows that innovation has always been an important part of every supplier spend analysis. And till date, every project handled by us is a testimony on how the challenges in the spend data can be easily overcome with innovative distribution of purchase cost.
To know more about how innovation can empower your buying capacity and procurement strategy