How I Became a Procurement Director, What I Achieved, and What I Dreamed Of

The role of a procurement director is multifaceted and constantly evolving. It requires business acumen, strategic thinking, and strong collaboration skills. My journey into procurement leadership started without prior procurement experience, but curiosity and a desire to develop the function drove me forward. In this blog post, I share how I became a procurement director, what I accomplished, and what I wished I could have taken even further.

How I Became a Procurement Director and What I Achieved

When I started as a procurement director, I had little prior experience in procurement. My background was in IT management as well as various business and sales leadership and expert roles. While working in sales, I had collaborated with procurement and learned to understand its objectives and practices. I soon realized that procurement and sales leadership had surprisingly much in common.

I received support from my procurement team, my supervisor, business units, and my predecessor. I documented what I learned in a development journal, which served as the foundation for my procurement transformation plan. The plan included the following phases:

1. Current State Analysis: We factually assessed our position, identified business perspectives on procurement, and analyzed where procurement spending was allocated.

   
   

2. Building the Procurement Strategy: We mapped business expectations through interviews and analyzed spending using modern tools. This led to the initial draft of a category structure.

   
   

3. Defining Strategic Objectives: We identified key drivers and set four strategic goals, the Must Win Battles (now known as OKR objectives), along with related metrics and targets (KPI metrics).

   
   

4. Executive Team Approval: Although the development team saw the plan as clear, the executive team required additional justifications, and the plan was approved only on the third submission.

   
   

5. Metrics and Analytics: Key metrics included coverage (how much of total procurement was affected by development actions) and calculated savings (contractual savings, later including bottom-line savings).

   
   

6. Competence Development: We identified training needs across the procurement community, including financial aspects, supplier perspectives, and interaction skills.

   
   

7. Operational Procurement: The management of high-volume operational procurement was functioning well and was left untouched.

   
   

The four key success factors were:

• The business case for procurement development was financially sound.

• The procurement management model was based on a self-defined category structure.

• Competence development covered both procurement expertise and collaboration skills.

• An analytical and fact-based approach gave us a better understanding of the company’s spending than anyone else.

  
  

What I Dreamed of as a Procurement Director

Although we achieved a lot, I also recognized procurement’s pain points and dreamed of several development steps that I did not have time to implement. Looking back, I can now articulate my aspirations better than I could as a procurement director.

1. Describing Business Value and Forecasting the Future

   • Although we generated significant savings, we were constantly asked to justify procurement’s value.

   • I dreamed of better metrics that not only described past performance but also predicted procurement’s impact on the future.

   • I saw the need to demonstrate procurement’s value from each business unit’s perspective.

     
     

2. Identifying Root Causes and Dynamic Analytics

   • We understood WHAT was happening, but I wanted deeper insights into WHY procurement costs, purchasing volumes, and supplier performance changed.

   • I dreamed of dynamic analytics that did more than report data—it revealed the underlying causes.

   • I was frustrated with static reports that showed barely noticeable changes and the long wait for more actionable insights (“we aim to deliver these within a year”).

     
     

3. Speed and Data Utilization

   • Combining various data sources took too much time since critical information was not centralized, and some datasets were manually maintained in different Excel sheets.

   • I dreamed of a solution that provided real-time and automatically updated procurement insights.

     
     

4. Improving Procurement Efficiency with a Broader Perspective

   • We often focused on large purchases because they yielded the quickest results.

   • I wanted better ways to optimize small supplier management, operational efficiency, effectiveness, and value creation.

     
     

5. The Next Level of Procurement Leadership

   • Every year, targets increased, but the way of working seemed to remain the same.

   • I dreamed that we would continuously identify new development opportunities and create new operating models.

   • I envisioned a ‘next level’ for procurement—a step change that would significantly enhance procurement’s impact.

     
     

What’s Next?

The role of a procurement director can be lonely, but now I feel like I am living my dream by helping procurement directors and professionals develop. I leverage all the experience I have accumulated in different roles and bring it into organizations to support their success.

I will continue writing about how dreams can become reality in procurement development. In upcoming blog posts, I will delve deeper into how procurement can reach the next level—the step change that takes procurement effectiveness to a new height.

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