… in some cases this is money you should have been on a decade ago!

Let’s backtrack. As we noted in Part 1, McKinsey ended Q1 by publishing a piece on Procurement 2024: The next ten CPO actions to meet today’s toughest challenges which had some great advice, but in some cases these were actions that your Procurement organization should have been taking five, if not ten years ago. And, if your organization was doing so in these cases, should be moving on to true next actions the article didn’t even address.

So, as you probably guessed, we’re in the midst of discussing each one, giving credit where credit is due (they are pretty good at strategy after all), and indicating where they missed a bit and tell you what to do next if you are already doing the actions you should have been doing years ago. And, just like we did to THE PROPHET‘s predictions, grade them. In this second instalment, we’ll tackle the next three actions, which they group under the heading of:

NEW SOURCES OF VALUE

4. Manage Volatility. B+

If Procurement doesn’t manage volatility, those savings they project never materialize. Hence, this is something Procurement should be doing every single year, so this is not really a next step — it’s an ongoing action. However, macroeconomic drivers are in flux and need to be monitored, and planned for, more regularly this decade than in the 2000s and 2010s. The organization needs to have multiple sourcing strategies for each of its categories based on potential shifts in the market driven by these macro-economic drivers, and be ready to play offence instead of defence.

5. Optimize Operations End-to-End. A-

Procurement should be constantly optimizing its operations, so this is not something that should be new. However, it needs to take another step up the optimization ladder and go beyond Source-to-Pay+ and include supply chain operations in its planning and make sure everything is in synch in its planning. In addition, a deeper integration with finance and market monitoring, risk management and risk monitoring, and logistics and delivery monitoring is also required for better optimization of procurement operations.

6. Integrate ESG and optimize upstream Scope 3. A

While sustainability should have been a front-and-center concern since it became clear near the end of last decade if you didn’t get ahead of it, you’d be behind (and in trouble when the legislations rolled into effect). However, while sustainability was clear, and targets were clear, it wasn’t necessarily clear (without thinking about the issue) that you would have to focus on not only tacking upstream Scope 3, but on how you will need to help those suppliers, possibly a few tiers down in the supply chain, optimize Scope 3 as there is nothing significant you can do to control your carbon debt if you don’t minimize it before it gets to you.