MEET THE EXPERT | COUPA
Leader Procurement, Coupa
and more have made us collectively raise the bar, moving away from the tactical and mundane day-to-day work to driving more innovation and strategic value across the entire organisation.
“ This survey shows the breadth of the challenges and opportunities facing procurement – strategic decision making, innovation, AI and geopolitical disruption are all dominating procurement’ s focus,” he continues.“ But there’ s a real positive in that. Procurement has always wanted a seat at the table, and these results show that’ s happening. Now it’ s up to us to build on the momentum that we’ ve been given.”
MVK points to the evolving role of the CPO as crucial for delivering on this ambition:“ The positioning of the CPO – particularly how it’ s become so strategic in its nature – really resonates,” he says.“ I’ ve said for many years that the CPO is the CEO of the future, and we’ re seeing that happen. It shows how we’ ve been able to collectively catapult ourselves within organisations, and I think this will be an extremely important and very viable shift in the future.
“ My advice to procurement leaders is to embrace everything we’ re talking about here, particularly around AI. Think about the skills and strategies needed to deliver and drive more value, move( and sometimes fail) fast and keep innovating. If we do that, procurement is on the right track.”
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