Ardent Partners’ latest research effort, CPO Rising 2011: Innovative Ideas for the Decade Ahead, was recently published and is now available from the report underwriters: Bristlecone, Hubwoo, and SAP.

This report is Ardent’s first market research effort and will be our only procurement-focused benchmark report this year. The effort has allowed us to capture an extraordinary body of data that may result in smaller, follow-on reports but this report (discussed here and in a series of articles) is our “big kahuna.” I may be I’m biased, but I really do look at this report as a “State of the CPO/Procurement market capturing the pulse of the market and where it is headed for the next 12-18 months. I can say that I think it is as good as any of the role-based reports that I have written (even if it’s a little long).

The theme of the report is innovation, which I have previously noted is such a wonderfully powerful word and such a wonderfully broad concept. While the theme of this report is procurement-led innovation, the report is about much more than innovation. This report seeks to present a comprehensive, industry-wide view into what is happening in the world of procurement today by drawing on the experience, performance, and perspective of nearly 250 Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement executives. It is also chock-full of quotes and perspectives from industry leaders.
Here is how it is organized:

Chapter One – The State of the CPO: This chapter looks at the evolution of the role of the Chief Procurement Officer and its increasing prominence in business today as well as the motivations and internal and external drivers that shape procurement leaders’ priorities and plans this year and beyond.

Chapter Two – The State of Procurement: This chapter offers an assessment of the general progress of the average procurement function by analyzing its people, process, and technology. It also introduces the Ardent Partners Procurement Competency Matrix that establishes industry-wide capability measures for the average procurement organization. 

Chapter Three – Procurement Performance: This chapter provides procurement performance and operational benchmark statistics and a profile of Best-in-Class performers and their distinguishing characteristics.

Chapter Four – Procurement-led Innovation: This chapter highlights the innovative ideas that procurement organizations are using to find and drive value from new sources in new and creative ways.

Chapter Five – Strategies for Success: This chapter presents a series of recommended strategies and approaches for CPOs and procurement departments seeking to improve their performance.

We will cover some of the key findings over the next few months on these pages. But each of our underwriters have made the full report available for download via their sites (the report is free but registration is required at each) so you can download the report from each of these three sites – here, here, and here.

Postscript I: As promised,all practitioner respondents who took the survey should expect to receive the report in your inbox in the next few days (we’re doing this manually in a one-off basis to avoid as many spam filters as possible).

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Case Study, Chief Procurement Officer, CPO