June 03 - 04, 2024
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The CPO's Corner
Aaron, this is truly a great question. It made me think of the “elevator speech” that business books encourage all of us to develop: what would we say if we were in an elevator with the CEO for a minute or two?
Back to your question, the first thing I’d suggest is that the CPO needs to think about his or her audience and corporate culture.
What is the company’s strategy and how can Procurement support it?
You have to consider what the need is. A CPO who touts cost reduction alone in a fast paced environment with fat margins is going to be perceived as an out of touch nuisance.
Because of that, the three answers can very well be different based on the business you’re working in.
But for MOST CPO’s in most situations, here are three suggestions:
Joanna Martinez is a global procurement / supply chain leader and the founder of Supply Chain Advisors LLC. She is a frequent lecturer and blogger on procurement topics and also provides coaching, strategy development, training, and cost reduction opportunity assessment. Her clients range from Fortune 100 companies to technology startups.
As either regional or global CPO, Joanna has led transformation initiatives for companies in many different sectors: among them Johnson & Johnson (consumer products), Diageo (beverage), AllianceBernstein LP (financial services) and Cushman & Wakefield (real estate services, property management). She has also held client-facing roles, effectively giving her the opportunity to “sit on both sides of the table”.