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With my new report, Becoming a CPO in 2014: The Qualifications, Experience, and Characteristics of a Chief Procurement Officer, helping current Chief Procurement Officers and those on the cusp understand what companies are looking for from their next CPO in 2014, I thought it would make sense to return to Part 2 of my CPO 2019 series to give those readers who are a few years away from the top procurement role something to consider.
Part I (which is available here) discussed how the CPO of 2019 will
- be more heavily-involved in financial and cash management
- become a bigger role in more nuanced management aspects (such as corporate branding), and
- act as a “center of intelligence” for critical corporate decisions.
Over the past half-decade, the CPO role has been evolving into a more strategic catalyst for corporate performance. When faced with tough economic times, the modern enterprise has frequently turned to the CPO and procurement department to help improve the financial conditions of the company. While the role of “hero” is one that has been firmly engrained in the CPO’s DNA in the past five years, this role will continue to drive tremendous value beyond the obvious as the years pass:
- The CPO will be more heavily involved in sourcing talent for the entire enterprise. It’s no secret that the CPO and the sourcing team are the “masters” of sourcing products and materials for the greater organization in a manner that sets a corporate tone for process and cost efficiency. One aspect of procurement today that will infiltrate deeper into the future is the sourcing of talent. With more and more organizations turning to professional (and non-professional) services and online labor marketplaces to fulfill enterprise needs, there are cost and compliance risks that will frequently pop-up. Procurement (and the CPO) is in an ideal function to apply a level of rigor not seen today in talent sourcing and engagement.
- The CPO won’t just have a “seat at the table,” the CPO will be setting the agenda. Those C-level execs that set boardroom agendas are the ones that are afforded a purview into multiple corporate angles (finances, projects, operations, etc.). With the CPO becoming more of a conduit to enterprise performance, those aspects are magnified due to the role’s access to strategic intelligence. With this knowledge in tow, the CPO can set an agenda that looks ahead and helps its peers make better decisions regarding the future of the greater organization (“How can spend management help us forecast? Which suppliers will help us balance cost efficiency with potential revenues?”)
- The Chief Procurement Officer role will help wade through the next rough economic patch (sometime before 2019). It is often said that experience can help any professional with future challenges, and this adage is on-the-mark when it comes to the next economic downturn, which will inevitably hit. As stated at the beginning of this article, the CPO was one of few corporate “heroes” when it came to building an effective counter-attack for tough economic times. This expertise can go a long way towards being prepared for the next downturn and how to manage it from a procurement perspective. What is the first initiative to be implemented to spark economic growth? What’s the best way to deal with the “doing more with less” mentality? The CPO has gone through it once before, and while the rewards for its heroics are currently being paid (“seat at the table,” more strategic / value-add function, etc.), the next crisis will rely heavily on the tactics of the past.
RELATED ARTICLES
CPO 2019: A Five-Year Outlook (Part I)
Designing a Procurement Transformation for Best-in-Class Performance
Corporate Convergence: Finance and Procurement
Adding Value to the Business Unit (One CPO’s View of the World)
