it was then time to start to introduce them to my vision .”
Since joining , the procurement department has evolved significantly , by building a strong culture of delivery in the team , Burt emphasises that this has earned the team the respect and trust of the business , allowing the team to regain control .
“ We have gone through 3 phases of maturity in the past 4 years ,” says Burt . “ The first was about establishing our purpose , our team and our operating model . Defining what activities we perform centrally and those that are decentralised . It ’ s important to set expectations with your stakeholders around what you are here to do . The second phase was about systemising , offshoring and optimising . We built a shared service centre in Chennai which performs all our procurement & property operations , leaving our category leads to focus on strategic procurement and value generation .
“ Our third phase has been about integrating deeper relationships with our critical suppliers and our stakeholders , with a focus on unlocking hidden value . We don ’ t measure ourselves purely on savings generated .”
Centralising and digitalising timesensitive operational work As part of the company ’ s wider transformation strategy , Burt and his team have been working to centralise and digitise time-sensitive operational work . “ The first stage was to define each and every process procurement and property should perform . We took a very lean approach to this and ensured we only focused on those activities that were
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