Current Trends & Crisis in Procurement - How to integrate this with Lean-Agile Procurement
The world has become very unpredictable (supply chain disruptions, inflation, ..), new trends arrive every other day (ESG, circular economy, sustainability, diversity, ..) while the demand in procurement is increasing. So how to integrate all this, and do we need to adapt anything in Lean-Agile Procurement?
Many procurement organisations and it's professionals are getting overwhelmed by the unpredictability, new trends and increasing demands.
The only thing we can predict: Things are unpredictable.
—- Tim Cummins, President World Commerce & Contracting
Let's take one of the latest trends in procurement - ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance). It is currently one of the top priorities in the c-suite, a head of ESG is often hired, etc. Don't get me wrong, ESG deserves its place and procurement needs to embrace it. However, my observation of the day-to-day work of procurement professionals doesn't really change anything. They are still following their internal procurement process, so that such an important topic never really scales.
So the question is how to scale new trends and integrate current challenges such as supply chain disruptions, rising prices, etc.?
Well, by applying Lean-Agile Procurement we work cross-functional. This allows us to invite experts into the team as needed. While the aim is always to enable the team members in all new topics. This allows any new issue to be scaled across the organisation over time.
In additon, the Lean Procurement Canvas is a nice summary of the key aspects of a strategic sourcing case and drives the right conversations. To take this to the next level we've added some new questions to the "Cheat Sheet" that relate to the current trends/crises such as ESG.
We look forward to your feedback!
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