According to the Next Gen Rebels, this is what Procurement will look like in 2024

EDITOR’S NOTE: Who are the Next Gen (Procurement) Rebels? Check out the article Procurement’s Most Wanted List: Who Are The Next Gen Rebels? to discover who these industry movers and shakers are.

The best way to predict or anticipate the future of procurement is to talk to those professionals who want to influence the future versus being a spectator of it. These Next Gen Rebels are definitely not the spectator-kind, and here is what they had to say when I asked them the following three questions regarding 2024:

Question #1 – What is procurement’s biggest strength?

Kelly Barner – Being expected to perform under pressure (and in times of uncertainty) as a matter of course.

Rich Sains – Our people. We are an organisation’s conscience – hard working and able to get stuff done in the right way. Good at building relationships and networks of stakeholders and suppliers, we are innovative and effective.

Joël Collin-Demers – Procurement is at its best when it exhibits its chameleonism. When creativity and problem-solving are adapted to the stakeholder sitting in front of you and their definition of value, that’s when Procurement shines.

Dave Jones MCIPS – Adaptability – evolving to meet new demands through continuous improvement.

Question #2 – What is procurement’s biggest weakness?

Kelly Barner – Thinking of themselves as procurement. The best way to escape unwanted associations with legacy procurement is to simply work as a professional or team with specific skills, tools, and knowledge that can be applied throughout the business.

Rich Sains – How we promote the profession and our teams within our organisations. Given the importance of the job we do, it should be easy to get investment in L&D, systems, and additional resources. However, many teams struggle to justify the investment, and there is confusion about what procurement is. This is an unnecessary loss of potential.

Joël Collin-Demers – Egotism. When Procurement is focused on “My policy, my processes, my tools, ME”, that’s when we are at our worst. Good Procurement is when your stakeholder doesn’t even know it exists.

Dave Jones MCIPS – Rigidity – not evolving by relying on what has driven previous success. (ADDED NOTE: On the strength and weakness points. My view is the gap between the good Vs. average in procurement is growing massively Vs. previous times.)

Question #3 – What are (or should be) procurement’s top 3 objectives for 2024?

Kelly Barner

1. Quantifying the cost of the business’s decisions, rather than the cost of the goods and services procurement negotiates on their behalf.
2. Consistently embed ESG-related objectives in all projects even when the business does not request it.
3. Getting better at measuring risk and using those measures to track changes (both good and bad) over time.

Rich Sains

1. Formulate an effective PR strategy for our teams. Talk to stakeholders, understand pain points, and ensure we are solving them. Track the KPIs that matter to the CEO, not just vanity metrics that make you look good to your peers but aren’t believed by the CFO.
2. Plan out a digital roadmap – even with little or no resources, unless we have a plan, we have no direction in this space. Teams cannot rely on Excel forever – those with no plan will get left behind and will struggle to attract talent.
3. Invest in soft skills training – soft skills are a multiplier that makes our technical skills more impactful. Most key skills that teams require are ‘soft’ and yet only 12% of teams invest in training for these skills.

Joël Collin-Demers

1. A “digital-first” mindset (and the skills to go with it). You may not have the budget or time to implement a tool for a new process, but you should already be thinking about the roadmap to digitalize this new capability and what you need to do right now (e.g., how to structure the data) so it is easier to digitalize later.
2. Adjust your foundations to enable speed and innovation. As an example, let’s say you don’t have a change control procedure in your Procurement policy. You need to go up to the board to make changes… Change that this year. You need to be nimble. The other piece is putting in place flexible low-code/no-code applications that enable the deployment of new business processes in hours instead of months. You need to become a continuous improvement and iteration machine!  
3. Prepare for the age of “No employees”. The World Bank projects that most countries will lose around 50% of their working-age population in the next 30 years (from 2/3 in 2020 to 1/3 in 2050). Your business needs to be equipped to support the same amount of work as today + everything else we’re asking of you + the next 30 years of growth while slowly losing half your workforce… We need to get efficient… And fast!

Dave Jones MCIPS

1. Triple bottom line – the art and the science. 
2. Risk management – understanding top supply chain risks and mitigation plans.
3. Digitisation – removing treacle and driving efficiency 

Over the next week, I will be catching up with two, maybe three, “Next Gen Rebels” and will share their responses with you through the Procurement Insights blog.

In the meantime, what do you think? Do you agree with their observations? Have they missed anything that you would have included in the above answers?

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