“We have to figure out ways to address all of our spend, not just our top performing spend with our top suppliers. The reality is we can’t continue to go out and source the same categories the same way and deliver outstanding and continued sustainable results. If I go out for floor care one more time the same way I did it three years ago, I’m not going to be able to deliver any value. And that’s not acceptable.” –Nancy Nicoll, VP of Indirect Sourcing Center of Excellence at Retail Business Services
In 2021, we facilitated a lot of discussions about category management. Is it still fit for purpose or does this 25-year old business process need to evolve faster to keep up with the ways procurement continues to change?
At Mastermind LIVE Spring 2021, Nancy Nicoll, VP of Indirect Sourcing Center of Excellence at Retail Business Services, and Jaime Robles, CPO of Caseys General Stores, joined Philip Ideson for a panel session to discuss procurement operating models – specifically, whether category management is ‘dead’ or ‘alive’ and if procurement should pursue a relational or expertise-based model for working with the business.
They answered questions such as:
What are some of the challenges that a category management-driven procurement structure brings and how can we overcome them?
