If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s learning to live with uncertainty. Although these past years have been tough on both people and businesses, they did teach most of us some important skills. Navigating through uncertainty and market volatility is one skill that most competitive businesses will use for a long time.
As we walk into 2023, we need to realise that agility is key to remaining competitive in this new environment. The sooner companies learn how to respond to new challenges in the market the sooner they can establish a position of top player in their industry.
Procurement and supply chain teams have been trying to hold the line for the last 3 years with many market players doing a very good job at it. It has become imperative for these teams to up their game in order to remain in business. However, there is still quite a lot of pressure on procurement and supply chain to find ways to navigate through a new, volatile ‘normal’.
With economic experts expecting a market recession in the near future, the pressure is even bigger for procurement to equip businesses with the necessary tools to navigate this new market dynamic.
In the coming weeks are planning to address 5 of the challenges that are going to be top of mind for procurement leaders in 2023 in order to remain competitive in a dynamic economic environment. Here is a brief summary of what we are going to cover:
- Addressing environmental issues: sustainable business practices and environmental issues should remain a top priority for businesses everywhere. More and more customers and investors prefer businesses that have implemented sustainability into their operations. Carbon emission is one of the top concerns when it comes to sustainability and companies need to ensure they are lowering the impact they have on the environment, taking into account the suppliers they choose to partner with as well.
- Supply chain disruptions and shortages: the world has been battling with supply chain disruptions and supply shortages in 2022 and there is no guarantee that this won’t continue into 2023. If we learned anything from past mistakes it’s that it is imperative for companies to have a resilient supply chain to have the capability to mitigate most supply chain disruptions and limit the impact of those that occur. Resilience should encompass three categories: people, processes and technology.
- The strategic role of the CPO: as we mentioned above, procurement and supply chain will play an important role in navigating uncertainty and market volatility and needs ready access to actionable insights and the capacity for more strategic analysis. This of course, will raise the profile of the CPO to a strategic advisor who helps to shape the business, especially in tough times.
- Integrating digitisation and automation in procurement: we’ve said this before, integrating digitisation and automation into your procurement function is a matter of when not if. The risks of not digitasing your procurement function definitely outweigh the costs and challenges of going through a digital transformation journey. Modern procurement software solutions have evolved capabilities that help companies overcome some of the most important risks in the market from supply chain disruptions, supplier assessment, through to monitoring sustainability goals. However, for some companies the more basic challenges still remain a priority, like reducing manual tasks, improving visibility and control over spend, invoice matching, ensuring compliance etc.
- Developing team skills and talent: developing team skills and talent seems to be at the top of CPOs’ agenda as we go into 2023. Following up on what was called ‘The Great Resignation’ over the last few years, it has become imperative for businesses to focus on developing and promoting existing talent in order to retain it. Training has a big impact on how teams perform. A key factor in the success of a world class procurement function is whether people have the right skill sets. Tailored training sessions for your business can have a powerful impact in getting the most from your investment.
If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s learning to live with uncertainty. Although these past years have been tough on both people and businesses, they did teach most of us some important skills. Navigating through uncertainty and market volatility is one skill that most competitive businesses will use for a long time.
As we walk into 2023, we need to realise that agility is key to remaining competitive in this new environment. The sooner companies learn how to respond to new challenges in the market the sooner they can establish a position of top player in their industry.
Procurement and supply chain teams have been trying to hold the line for the last 3 years with many market players doing a very good job at it. It has become imperative for these teams to up their game in order to remain in business. However, there is still quite a lot of pressure on procurement and supply chain to find ways to navigate through a new, volatile ‘normal’.
With economic experts expecting a market recession in the near future, the pressure is even bigger for procurement to equip businesses with the necessary tools to navigate this new market dynamic.
In the coming weeks are planning to address 5 of the challenges that are going to be top of mind for procurement leaders in 2023 in order to remain competitive in a dynamic economic environment. Here is a brief summary of what we are going to cover: