Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks on CPO Rising, we’re publishing some “best of” 2020 articles as we reflect on the year and prepare for the new year ahead.
We began this series in January of 2020 as a way to aggregate important ideas for procurement leaders as they set their organizations’ course as they head into the new decade. It was also designed to echo the 10 for 2010 series we published to launch this site and kickoff the last decade. But for most, the end of May, 2020 is very different than the beginning of January, 2020. One thing that has not changed between the end of May, 2020 and the beginning of January, 2020 or the beginning of January, 2010 or the beginning of January 2000: it is almost impossible for a procurement operation to achieve Best-in-Class performance without a strong, capable, and decisive Chief Procurement Officer at the helm. Today we conclude our 20 for 2020: Key Themes for the Modern CPO’s Agenda with #20 – Leadership.
CPO Leadership
It has been my distinct privilege to get to know many of our profession’s legendary CPOs and many other procurement trailblazers who have led driven this industry forward with their ideas and met with great success from their ability to get their teams to execute them. I have met many outstanding and notable CPOs and though their leadership styles may differ, they share many commonalities. The rise of the CPO has come to symbolize all of the best elements of the profession for a reason. And, given the complexity of the business function and the broad range of constituents it must support, procurement success demands strong, visionary leadership that includes CPOs but also their lieutenants.
Peter Drucker said that “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” And while I would never, ever question Peter Drucker (he is one of my revered favorites), but I would add that beyond doing the right things, you have to have real “skin in the game.” In 2020, whatever style of leadership a CPO may have, they must also follow the courage of their convictions. They must have the confidence to take calculated business risks to pursue next-level performance. Leaders must fight against complacency and they must work to counteract organizational prejudices and more actively push boundaries, challenge limits, and rethink paradigms.
If you are a CPO or have worked for one for a number of years, you probably have your own thoughts, strategies and approaches to leadership. In 2020, my only recommendation is that you validate your approach with trusted peers and advisors and then double-down on them.
To be certain, this decade will be more challenging for procurement than the last one. To thrive, CPOs will need to execute today’s best practices at a high level simply to maintain production. To transcend the current procurement operating paradigm, CPOs will need to combine new and innovative ideas and approaches with a high-functioning workforce in a post-digital transformation environment. Today’s best practices should not be discarded, they should be innovated and regularly reevaluated. In the next decade, procurement’s opportunities will be far too expansive to allow for complacency and the continuation of business as usual. To properly pursue them, CPOs must start placing bigger bets, and work aggressively to relaunch their departments onto a new and higher performance trajectory.
As the speed and complexity of business continues to accelerate, executives must adapt to new market conditions as they fight to retain market share and market relevance. Procurement departments, their operations, culture, systems, and the way in which they transform knowledge into strategies and those strategies into performance, must all keep pace. The procurement profession needs strong leadership to push it through to the next level of value creation. Chief Procurement Officers and their teams need to reach higher for larger and sweeter fruit; and if they cannot grasp it, they need to start using new strategies, tools, and approaches to help stretch their reach, expand their influence, and increase their impact.
The good news for CPOs and their teams is that they will not have to journey to some magical land to find the answers. In fact, most will not have to look any further than their own backyard; they can harness the leading business innovations and ideas already at work within the industry (and within their enterprise) and start to pave their own yellow brick road.
In the face of and eventual aftermath of the coronoavirus pandemic, more than ever, CPOs must follow the courage of their convictions as they start to reframe the procurement function and how it engages and operates. Where courage does not exist, it must be manufactured. Remember that in business, the meek inherit nothing.
Tomorrow’s best CPOs must develop new ways to break through inertia and drive better outcomes. They must inspire change, even as they execute it. Above all, they must unflinchingly see procurement as a competitive advantage and then work relentlessly to realize their vision. View the 20 for 2020 Series.
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