Arguably the most critical determinant of a successful category strategy is the ability of the Category Manager to influence their stakeholders.
In today’s Art of Procurement podcast, I welcome Bill Michels, the Founder and CEO of Aripart Consulting on to the show. Prior to Aripart Consulting, Bill enjoyed a 23-year career leading ADR North America and ADR International which was acquired by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).
In our conversation, I wanted to understand how procurement professionals can better influence stakeholders as we seek to build more effective category strategies that deliver value over and above cost savings.
“In Direct procurement you really have a lot of control over stakeholders but if you are working in Indirect procurement and you are trying to drive a category strategy you really have no control and all you can really do is try and influence the spend.”
In this episode, you will learn:
What are the differences between a category strategy that seeks to drive cost savings vs. seeking other sources of value?
What are the 10 key components of any category strategy (and which is the most important)?
How can you sell the concept of participating in a category strategy to a skeptical stakeholder?
How do you take a category strategy that has picked away at the low hanging fruit and take it to the next level?
