Procurement is Doomed! Entombed! Marooned!

Apparently the recent Procurement Pub Debate, summarized in a recent post from Mr. Smith on “procurement pub debate arguments from the doomed side”, ended up with a win for the pro side. But the harsh reality, is that Procurement, at least as we know it, is doomed, ready to be entombed, and marooned on a desert Island. The pro side can be as blindly optimistic as they want to be, but it doesn’t change Procurement’s future.

As the supporters of the doomed side note, with modern web platforms:

  • it’s easy to buy what you want, when you want, for the price you want,
  • up-to-date market information lets you know how the price compares to other offerings on the market, and
  • peer reviews and opinion crowd sourcing lets you know how likely it is to fit your needs.

In other words, from an average employee’s point of view, who needs Procurement?

Furthermore,

  • inflation is back, so Procurement is not going to be able to negotiate significant cost reductions, or do much better than a market auction across a sufficient supply base,
  • risk is increasing, and organizations’ think it’s more important to focus on Risk Management in the Supply Base than Procurement, and
  • the market is becoming more digitized by the day and the organization would rather focus on expanding sales through the largest sales channel out there than worry about cost control as they see increased revenue as the quickest path to greater profit in a time of inflation.

So, despite the continued need of an average organization to insure that the organization can continue to acquire the supply necessary to meet customer demand, Procurement is increasingly being seen to be of secondary importance in an average organization and this trend is only going to continue. As it stands now, Procurement has peaked well below the level it should have reached. There is no future for Procurement. Unless, of course, it evolves. How? Stay tuned!