Procurement has a large role to play – larger than they might even think – in creating and maintaining an organizational culture that is focused on continuous improvement.
In a recent episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, host Kelly Barner spoke with Jonathan Gardner, an experienced procurement and supply chain leader who has worked for a number of well-known companies, including Starbucks, GM, and Dell.
During their conversation, Jonathan explained how procurement can harness their power and influence to rally the entire business around continuous cycles of improvement, innovation, and forward momentum.
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement
It all starts by breaking down any barriers or siloes that might have isolated procurement from the rest of the business. To do that, he says, procurement has to look outside of themselves and take an authentic approach to learning what the rest of the business cares about, struggles with, or needs.
Remove cross-functional barriers
“The bottom line is your conversations with people in other parts of the business need to be about them and about what they’re trying to achieve, and you need to take the time to either speak their language or a common language within your company,” he said. “You have to truly connect with what is going on in the company, not just where you are on your cost savings targets.”
Broaden the value proposition of procurement
Once procurement has removed cross-functional barriers, they can lay the foundation for becoming true business leaders who can drive the entire organization towards a vision of continuous improvement. Doing this, points out Jonathan, requires procurement to “broaden” their value proposition and communicate it across the business in ways that connect with each function’s unique needs.
“It’s important for the business to have a well-rounded perspective or vision for what procurement is and what it could be,” he said. “Procurement has to figure that out so when you talk about continuous improvement, you’re able to anticipate a wide range of perspectives about what ‘continuous improvement’ actually means. Depending on the function you’re talking with, it’s going to feel different for them.”
Ask the right questions
Knowing how to ask the ‘right’ questions and, as Jonathan puts it, “using the vocabulary that’s interesting to your stakeholders” to understand what they want and care about, positions procurement as trusted advisors within the business. Ultimately, procurement can play a large role in creating a culture of continuous improvement when they shift the focus away from themselves and onto the rest of the business.
And he means this quite literally.
“Procurement’s attention in a meeting should be on the other people. You’re not there to talk about yourself. You’re there to listen, observe, and hopefully ask some good questions with some relevant vocabulary words sprinkled in there that enables you to understand their perspective and then do something with it,” he said. “If you’re thinking about yourself the whole time, it’s apparent you’re going to lose the opportunity to make a connection and influence those folks.”
Prioritize building internal relationships
While this approach to relationship and culture building might sound time consuming to some – time that many procurement professionals feel they just don’t have – Jonathan has seen large, high-performing teams make it work. Finding the time to research and invest in internal relationships at a level that will drive continuous improvement for everyone takes strategic time management, realistic goal-setting, and focus.
“You have to do time ‘allocation’ management … to make sure you have a balance,” said Jonathan. “But, procurement also has to negotiate the right cost savings and performance goals in the first place. This can afford you the luxury of being strategic."
There are many different ways, he said, for procurement to make the time to build better relationships and drive a culture of continuous improvement, but “it comes down to creativity and determination so that you invest your time in a broad way that really helps move the needle strategically.”
When procurement is stretched thin, this requires both “courage and determination” to negotiate your priorities so that they have the time and resources they need to truly make an impact and play a key role in driving the business forward. Having honest conversations with leadership about procurement’s role and the greatest areas of potential value creation is the only way to manage it all.
“When procurement has a five pound bag but the business just handed them 10 pounds of sugar, they have to negotiate with leadership to make sure they have the right priorities,” said Jonathan. This sometimes means shifting or negotiating priorities or asking for more resources. ”If you give leadership a really good, well-reasoned idea of how to get more out of you, you’ll become a strategic and valued leader.”
For more insight, listen to Jonathan's full episode here:
