CPOs on the Rise in 2011 continues with Part 2 of our profile of Holger Baeuerle, Senior Vice President – Head of Global Procurement at Moody’s Corporation’s (Ticker – NYSE: MCO) – Part 1 with Holger can be found here. Moody’s provides credit ratings and research covering debt instruments and securities, and Moody’s Analytics, which offers leading-edge software, advisory services and research for credit analysis, economic research and financial risk management. The Corporation, which reported revenue of $2 billion in 2010, employs approximately 4,500 people worldwide and maintains a presence in 26 countries.

CPO Reporting

When Holger first joined Moody’s procurement, he reported to the Senior Vice President – Corporate Controller and was very closely aligned with Accounts Payable. After determining that procurement should be a separate function, for reasons of good governance, (this is one company’s answer to the MMQ: Should Procurment Own AP?), Holger and his procurement department branched out. While Holger reports to the Head of Corporate Services, he has kept a link to AP as his department remains responsible for reviewing and authorizing exceptions to the T&E policy.

One corporate relationship that Holger values very highly is the one he has developed with Moody’s finance department. Holger notes that “its executive management is very interested in how procurement is helping the business” and serves as a strong ally. Holger believes that the support from the finance department’s executive management has been crucial to the hiring and growth plans that he has executed to date.

Additionally, there is a direct finance to procurement reporting line since Moody’s corporate services department reports to the finance department. One organizational move that has greatly benefited Moody’s procurement team in recent years was the move to put the IT group under Finance. This move has helped promote collaboration between the two groups; as a result, the procurement and IT groups have become much better aligned and more organized, operating today as a tightly-knit team (IT spend in financial services is usually very significant, so the relationship has greater relative importance for procurement than in many other industries).

Plans for 2011

For 2011, the creation of an IT Vendor Management Office, a strategy which has been in vogue in the financial services sector for the past few years, is a top priority. A focus on procurement, contracts and the management of professional services contracts are other top areas in focus within Moody’s procurement this year. Training, as in years past, will continue to be process focused and developed internally (often in partnership with different business lines).

Managing rapid growth remains one of Holger’s primary departmental and managerial challenges for 2011 (and beyond). Holger’s team has grown fast; yet, it remains a relatively small group within the 4,500+ person global company – outside of IT and Travel, procurement does not have a mandate. But, what it does have is engagement with the business in an increasing way. Procurement is also increasing its footprint and areas of responsibility into areas like EU regulatory risk and BPO management. For these reasons and many more, Holger Baeuerle is a CPO on the Rise in 2011.

Thank you Holger!

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