Procurement 2020

If you had asked anyone in December 2019 if the year 2020 would be playing out the way it has, no one could have predicted it. It’s been a year of change, disruption, and ever-shifting goal posts for most people, both professionally and personally.

The Covid-19 pandemic, the economic downturn, travel curtailed and borders closed, toilet paper shortages (who’d have ever projected that!), and layoffs and furloughs. Add to this political factors, protests, and increasing global uncertainty on a number of fronts. 2020 has presented us all with a weird and wobbly reality to navigate.

These implications are now front and center for procurement, strategic sourcing, and supply chain. Procurement professionals need to rise to the occasion, address the challenges, and find ways to progress the function and their careers in spite of the obstacles.

What will this look like?

Procurement leaders must shift and hone their focus. It is critical to

– be agile and flexible

– pivot and change leadership styles

– refocus and reprioritize goals and desired outcomes.

So, in reaction to this current environment, I’m shifting the focus of my column from Intelligent Automation to Procurement 2020. That’s not to say that IA and digital transformation are no longer important; they are and will continue to be key elements for successful procurement and supply chain organizations.

But, based on feedback from a number of industry colleagues, there are a lot of topics relevant to the current state of 2020 that I will be exploring, with an emphasis on what the impacts are for procurement.

I hope you continue to read along with me as we look at how to meet the challenges of Procurement 2020.