Is it time for more entrepreneurial thinking in Procurement?

When most think about procurement (of course that assumes that some do think about it), they often perceive a group that is so focused on the savings line and therefore misses the bigger picture. Of course, for procurement, one of the key measures of success often lies in the "savings metric", but as always, be careful about what you measure because it won't necessarily drive the correct behavior.

So why not focus on more of an entrepreneurial procurement organization -- focused on top-line and the bottom-line,with more of an emphasis of providing frameworks and act as a consultant for corporations in all matters relating to procurement, and at the same time ensuring that effective partnerships are pursued with vendors (note I mean real partnerships --walking the talk, not just talking and tripping when push comes to shove), and that the innovation within that community is utilized for enhancing the overall business model for the corporation.

Depending on where you are at in procurement's evolution within your organization this may need to be done incrementally vs. in one fell swoop. The stepping stones which I see to get to entrepreneurial procurement are:

• If mostly tactical and administrative and decentralized -- focus first on centralizing and moving the team up the ladder by developing effective processes/procedures in concert with your constituency...internal and external
• Focus on understanding the business as a whole...not from your little world. Although you cannot cut lose the savings umbilical cord quite yet (as this is what binds you to the organization)...start working with your internal business partners...try to understand the business from their perspective....then develop your strategies to align with those of the business.
  
• Reach out to your suppliers...go visit them...meet with their key people, including their procurement and supply chain folk....you might find that there are some common issues/challenges which you can work on commonly. Utilize your suppliers knowledge of the marketplace as a whole...find out what innovations they see coming up in the future...how can that potentially advance your corporations competitiveness?
• When you have gained traction within the organization and a centralized model is working effectively, it is now time to decentralize (OK stop the screaming)....There is an old adage that before you can let go, you need to take control...so the first steps here are taking control...and now...when it is in the corporation's DNA to understand the procurement protocol...it is time for procurement to become more of a high level consultant to the organization...working with the internal teams to ensure that they have effective go-to-market strategies for procuring goods and services and that all options have been considered; maintaining the relationships and tapping the innovative supplier corridor; providing high level negotiation and dispute resolution skills; acting as an ombudsman(woman) for issues/challenges;....there is more but you get the idea. The senior leader of this group would be part of the executive leadership team and actively participates in corporate strategy development and discussions.

Being the police and the savings entity is not helping move procurement to the boardroom table...