Ardent Partners hosted The CPO Rising 2K20 Virtual Series – The Resiliency Imperative as a way to bring together our global community of procurement, finance, and supply management professionals and collectively tackle the big issues we were all facing and continue to face as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As a special treat for all our readers, Ardent is excited to present the recorded sessions from that Virtual Series. Listen this recording designed for Chief Procurement Officers and other procurement leaders.
Anders Lillevik is a serial Chief Procurement Officer with 20+ years of experience in building and turning around large, complex procurement organizations to be Best-in-Class including Fannie Mae, QBE Insuarnce, QBE, N.A., and Webster Bank. Anders is also a longtime friend of the site (here our an interview from 2010) and recently founded a new company called Focal Point Procurement Solutions.
In his presentation, Anders delivered an entire catalog of ideas and strategies on what sourcing and procurement teams can start doing today to (1) prepare for the immediate aftermath of the pandemic and (2) start paving the road to recovery. Some of Anders’ insights included:
“As we continue to answer what the “new normal” will be, we need to move beyond simply keeping the wheels on the bus… it is important to get into the driver’s seat during this time.”
“Anything having to do with ensuring that employees and customers are safe have to be prioritized.”
“Utilizing a category management approach will bring the team back to basics but also help unlock great value… For example, now may be a great time to unlock savings with professional services providers by renegotiating rate cards.”
“Be manufacturer agnostic to avoid single point dependency.”
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