“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”- Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD

As a procurement exec, did you get a feeling about your luck being bad when you made an all-important contract with a supplier, only to notice that your decision has backfired with the supplier having filed for bankruptcy. Do you wish there be a wand or a spell which cleared the haze surrounding the spend you controlled? Did you often wonder what happened to the negotiated/projected savings, when during the close of the year you didn’t find them as part of the bottom line? Are you looking for things to change your luck come 2015?

If your answer is yes, then we are sorry to say we do not have that secret recipe for you to improve your luck. But yes what we do have is a solution that takes care of the luck side of things.

The role of procurement has drastically shifted in the past decade. The questions, that CPOs today face, are far removed from those that they faced, even five years ago. With the supply base for almost all organizations having gone global, the measurement of procurement efficiency is not just the amount of cost reduction achieved. Apart from reducing the cost of procurement, expanding procurement’s scope/influence & reducing supply chain risk feature as the top priorities for procurement execs according to a survey conducted by Zycus & The Hackett Group (View the archived webinar – Key procurement trends for 2015)

Rather than making things more difficult these challenges can be looked at as an opportunity for procurement departments to replace cost reduction as an aim and instead focus towards value addition. As the economy continues to be volatile, procurement needs to look at becoming more pro-active to issues and challenges that it might face compared to being the fire fighting, reactive approach that it generally resorts to.

The infusion of technology has to be supplemented with market intelligence and analytics to ensure that procurement moves beyond the role of a buyer and becomes a business advisor, adding strategic value to the organization. So, before the reactive approaches get on your nerve, make sure you have the right tool in your hands and leave the recipe part for the kitchen as you gear up to 2015.

Wishing all the readers a Happy New Year!