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.
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“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?
Links and Resources:
- Subscribe to The Art of Procurement
- Aripart Consulting
- Bill Michels on LinkedIn
- Bill Michels on Twitter
- A Peek Behind the Curtain: The Effective Category Strategy by Bill Michels
