Event takeaways: Putting words into action

Key actions

• Future-proof your team by honing next-generation capabilities that may be laying dormant. A panel on procurement talent – which included leaders from Heineken, Nokia and Proxima – identified challenging, influencing and persuading, and internal and external networking as vital future skills.

• Be deliberate and proactive in building diversity into your team. Research indicates diversity and inclusion fosters happier and higher-performing teams.

• Develop role specialisations within your teams to encourage a long-term focus. Len DeCandia, CPO at J&J, said specialisation may give staff a greater sense of accountability and purpose, encouraging excellent execution.

Key actions

• Develop, define and communicate key performance indicators that align to the value procurement wants to drive with business partners, such as risk mitigation or revenue generation.

• Connect your strategy to that of the business and communicate it internally by empowering your team to ‘pitch’ to business partners and drive consistent perceptions of the function's value.

• Learn the language of other functions to build strong relationships founded on clear communication. Procurement jargon can be off-putting and alienate stakeholders, rather than help build trust.

Key actions

• Establish a formal governance process by which to clean, process and format data but accept it will never be 100% accurate. This will enable the function to quickly use and act on the information.

• Develop a clear six- or 12-month plan for how your digital processes and activities will fit into the existing corporate strategy. This will help secure support and resources to enable these activities without the distraction and complexity of long-term roadmapping.

• Focus on describing the benefits of digital solutions that augment procurement teams to neutralise their fear of replacement. This will help staff embrace the digitalisation process faster.