The team here at CPO Rising is always particularly interested in the future of the spend management industry. It’s exciting to think of the new technologies, new solutions and new strategies that are coming up the pike to shake things up and make noise in an already-crowded market. In this unique two-part series, we’re going to look at the Chief Procurement Officer of 2019; this five-year outlook will take a peek at how the CPO’s role may shift in the future and how his or her capabilities may evolve from their current state.
The CPOs of today are often faced with a difficult climate within their own organizations: continue to be a cost-cutting and cost-saving savior while also progressing the value of the procurement department beyond the classic measures of performance and success. It’s not an easy balance, yet, contemporary procurement executives are working day-in and day-out to become an ideal harbinger of corporate evolution.
What will the Chief Procurement Officer role of 2019 look like? While we can openly wonder how much the current perspectives of this role can change, we’ve highlighted several key areas that will possibly look much different from a variety of angles (spend, supplier, financial operations, category management, etc.).
- The CPO sits at the center of the enterprise’s core financial operations. The interesting thing about this outlook is that it’s been possible for such a long time; we’ve talked about the significance of the CPO-CFO relationship before, and it makes perfect sense why procurement would be more heavily-involved in financial and cash management. Procurement has a direct effect on the more critical components of the modern financial ecosystem, including accounts payable and cash management. The tightly-run procurement unit, firing on all cylinders, can drive spend under management and improve overall corporate control on enterprise cash.
- Nuanced management aspects, such as corporate branding, will factor in procurement’s expertise. Procurement and marketing are still relatively newer “friends” when it comes to collaboration (at least in regards to events management). However, it wouldn’t be surprising to see these two units work together in a more unified manner in the future. With the quality and effectiveness of key / core suppliers top-of-mind for the procurement group, this division’s expertise and insight could play a role in how the marketing department manages corporate branding and the components (read: suppliers) that are linked to critical materials and content.
- Intelligence is funneled through the procurement group for many critical corporate decisions. It’s been said before that “Big Data” is just a hot play on the concept of spend analytics. It’s mostly true, as those “Big Data” strategies leverage the core of what spend analytics offers: deeper insights, better perspectives and actionable intelligence. Expect procurement to be a “center of intelligence” for many critical decisions across the enterprise due to the group’s tight link to spend, supplier and financial data.
Stay tuned for Part II of our series, where we’ll further highlight how the Chief Procurement Officer could look just five years from now.
RELATED ARTICLES
A Modern View of Supply Management… and a Look into the Future
Future Shock: Disruptive Technologies on Procurement’s Horizon
The Chief Procurement Officer’s Hot Button Issues in 2013
