“You could get $1 million in savings today or you could get $2 million in savings in two years’ time, but depending upon the cost of capital and the urgency to deliver those benefits, the $1 million today might be worth a lot more than $2 million in two years. It all depends on what the priorities are in the business.”
You have just been appointed to a new CPO position. Your executive leadership team is looking at you to make an immediate impact while setting up procurement as a driver of sustainable, long term value. You know that your first 100 days in the role may make or break your career. What do you do? Where do you start?
In this special 5-part series, made possible through a partnership with Efficio, we will provide you with the roadmap you need to hit the ground running.
In the third episode of the series, I spoke with Sushank Agarwal, a Principal at Efficio, about the tactics that help maintain the delicate balance between delivering quick savings and preserving long term relationships with stakeholders and suppliers.
In addition, Sushank and I discussed:
- Whether quick-win savings require you to start off with an unhappy supply base
- The value that procurement teams already have within their reach but often overlook
- The common pitfalls experienced by procurement teams in pursuit of quick-win savings
- The critical role the executive leadership team has to play in building stakeholder support
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Links & Resources
- Download the CPO’s First 100 Day Checklist that accompanies this series.
- Sushank Agarwal on LinkedIn
- For more information on Efficio
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The team at Efficio have just published a major research study, called ‘The Human Factor: Strategic procurement and the leaders of tomorrow’, which they developed in cooperation with the Cranfield School of Management.
The research explores how a more tech-savvy, collaborative and strategically-minded future procurement workforce will ultimately require a reshape of organisational design, and serve as a driving force of transformational change alongside procurement technology.
