Sadly, It Looks Like the doctor’s 2014 Procurement Prediction is Going to Come True!

In Prediction Time Again? Ugh. (Part I and Part II), the doctor predicted that 2014 will be 2013 part II and 2009 part VI. Specifically, this means that

  • the focus will continue to be on cost-cutting and not value-creation,
  • valuable, high-ROI, technology will continue to be ignored, and
  • the training and new talent budgets will remain empty.

According to Deloitte’s recently released Global CPO Survey, 79% of CPO priorities have cost reduction as their #1 priority.

According to the Hackett Group’s recent EPM Executive Perspective on Technology Enablement: A Critical Piece of the Performance Management Puzzle, 63% of world class and 82% of peer group organizations still create management reports using spreadsheets as the primary business application.

And ProcureCon’s just-released “State of Indirect Procurement Benchmark Report”, which was complied from the responses to a benchmarking questionnaire distributed to ProcureCon Indirect West’s audience of procurement and sourcing practitioners, found that 55% of attendees at the event felt that their Procurement team was not adequately staffed and 60% of their organizations had no plans to increase the team size.

It’s a dismal state of affairs indeed.

If you need ideas to help kickstart your Supply Management organization and get out of this quagmire, consider joining the doctor at the inaugural ProcureCon Canada event (and register with code PCA14SI). Let’s share ideas, knowledge, and a commitment to moving the discipline forward, even if we need to light a few fires.