In the Spring of 2007, friend of the site, Holger Baeuerle became the first Chief Procurement Officer in the company that John Moody founded in 1914, Moody’s Corporation’s (Ticker – NYSE: MCO), storied history (his actual title is Senior Vice President – Head of Global Procurement). Similar to Price Marr , the trailblazing procurement executive at Ameren, Holger was the first executive to walk in the door to Moody’s procurement department.
In his early days, Holger spent much of his time out in the field, offering services to the different administrative heads of the different lines of business within Moody’s. Now, almost four years later, Holger Baeuerle is truly a CPO on the Rise in 2011, with an organization that has grown from a handful to about twenty and responsibility for six primary areas of business/spend. Managing the growth and expansion of responsibilities has been a tough challenge during a very rough period for the financial services industry. NY-based financial services companies were at the eye of the storm during the global financial crisis and Moody’s was no different. But, as many other firms shrank in size or closed their doors, Holger was able to take advantage of the surplus of talented procurement personnel in the market and made some very timely and valuable hires of both experienced and young staff . This important strategy helped his organization maintain its early momentum during the recession and build a solid foundation to manage the following key spend/business areas:
- Market data spend
- Travel services/spend
- Travel outsourcing
- IT spend
- Professional services
- General procurement (i.e. everything else)
Because of Moody’s industry and its specific business model, Holger says that his organization seeks to “ease processes and reduce risks” and that “there is not as much pressure to define specific saving goals today as efficient processes and defined policies and procedures ultimately lead to cost reductions.” Organizationally and individually, Holger is not measured on savings, but that may change as the organization continues to grow and mature. Certainly savings can be an objective in sourcing projects today, but not at the expense of efficiencies and quality and reduced risk. As such, Holger tends to hire operations or process people instead of traditional negotiators.
We will continue next time with a look at reporting relationships for Moody’s procurement department and Holger’s plans for 2011.
CPO on the Rise in 2011Name: Holger Baeuerle Title: Senior Vice President – Head of Global Procurement Company: Moody’s Education: MBA, Duke University – The Fuqua School of Business; BSc, Industrial and Business Economics, London School of Economics Years in Procurement: 12 Most valuable experience for current job: An eye for improving processes Most important skill used in current job: Ability to communicate! The key to achieving success in procurement: Hire good people who fit in with the culture and the task at hand. |
