Our “CPOs on the Rise in 2011” series starts with Price Marr, a procurement executive (and ‘friend of the site’) who’s generating a ton of procurement value out in the US heartland for Ameren Corporation (Ticker – NYSE: AEE), one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric or gas utilities, with approximately $24 billion in assets.
It is appropriate that we start with Price because he’s used to going first. Like many of the Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders in this series, Price was the first procurement executive to “join” his team (Strategic Sourcing) when he joined Ameren back in 2004, after more than a decade of working in Energy (in both industry and consulting positions). This is what I sometimes refer to as being a “Marine-type” of CPO – a leader with a “first boots on the ground” mentality – someone who has to clear a lot of ground and secure a foundation, upon which good things may then grow. [Sidebar: Price does have a military background: he’s a West Point grad]. Price was the first executive hired, but he was also employee #1 in a Strategic Sourcing group which has grown sizably in number of staff, influence wielded, and results delivered since he joined. While being the first CPO to join or lead an existing organization requires significant vision and managerial expertise, the first sourcing/procurement employee of an enterprise must be a jack of all trades and a master of most. This “Trailblazer” type of CPO is someone who is braving new ground and with very limited resources must be able to identify the best opportunities quickly and execute them just as fast. As “employee #1,” the Trailblazer must be able to lead sourcing efforts, engage the organization, create performance reports and deliver them. The Trailblazer must also have a vision (the right vision) and be able to garner support for it and drive it. Actually, that sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it?
In those early days, Price’s objective was to “build a team and get some wins.” Six plus years later, Price and his team certainly have a lot of wins in their rearview but many challenges still lay ahead. It is here that our interview begins.
Today, Price leads the Strategic Sourcing Department at Ameren, which supports all contracts above $5 million at the company. While that may seem like a high threshold, the utility business is capital intensive and Price’s team is heavily involved in capital projects. This means that the orientation and involvement of Price’s team is slightly different than many other sourcing groups which do not have a capital investment component to their focus. Price notes that his team’s involvement in capital projects has grown considerably over the last 3 years. Now, his team is not only involved in the sourcing aspect of a project, they are influencers on many other parts of these nine and ten-figure projects, which are central to the company’s operations. Price and his team will weigh in on key decisions like whether to use a GC (General Contractor) versus an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construct) firm and other crucial decisions like:
- the best timing of a project
- the overall structure of the project
- how to engage suppliers/contractors in the marketplace
- how to structure contracts
We’ll be back next time for Part II with a discussion of capital projects and other big initiatives at Ameren in 2011.
CPO on the Rise in 2011Name: Price Marr Title: Strategic Sourcing Manager (leads Strategic Sourcing Department) Company: Ameren Corporation Education: MBA, Pepperdine University; BS, Civil Engineering, United States Military Academy (West Point, NY) Years in Procurement: 10 Most valuable experience for current job: Management consulting and organizational leadership Most important skill used in current job: Flexibility and drive for results The key to achieving success in procurement: Stay focused on the outcome and use the strategy that best achieves the goal |
