Profit from the Source

1

Start at the Top

Make Your Suppliers and Your Procurement Function Leadership Imperatives

It is astonishing that CEOs pay so little attention to their suppliers. In our view, they should spend more time not only thinking about their suppliers but also getting actively involved in the work of their CPO and procurement professionals. If their companies are to draw the full benefits from suppliers, then CEOs should follow our first principle: Start at the top. Make your suppliers and your procurement function leadership imperatives. But it isn’t sufficient simply to issue a new set of instructions to employees: even in the most hierarchical, top-down organizations, the CEO’s edict travels only so far. So beyond this, CEOs should take two very ...