Let’s get Real about Purpose
Pat McCarthy, SVP at SAP Ariba, shared philosophy on Procurement with Purpose at the recent Procurious Big Ideas Summit.
Let’s get Real
It’s embarrassing, isn’t it, to still be talking about slavery in 2018, 150 years after the first anti-slavery campaigns? It’s time for companies to get real about their responsibilities to society.
Many companies have undertaken Corporate and Social Responsibility initiatives. But there’s an inherent danger here:
Insincere, under-funded programs can appear to be just “greenwashing”.
You have to mean it. Otherwise your employees will quit, millennials won’t join your company, and your increasingly concerned customers will drift away.
Stewards of the Brand
Procurement is going to have to stand at the front of the line in protecting the brand. See my blog “Who’s guarding your brand” for more on this stewardship.
Most procurement professionals gravitated towards their profession because they like to figure out how to make things work better. But few pros embarked on these careers thinking that they would change the world. But that’s where we’ve ended up.
There’s a new CPO in town, and their title is not Chief Procurement Officer but Chief Purpose Officer.
The good news is that the the opportunities for Procurement have gotten wider, and they’ve gotten deeper. As Brand Stewards suddenly we are in more important meetings, with more senior executives and in higher profile positions.
Focus on big changes to big things
To have impact you need to make big changes to big things. That doesn’t mean don’t experiment. But don’t settle for just tinkering with things.
The conference is called Big Ideas. So what makes a Big Idea? Generally it is risky, it is big and it has impact. Pat told a story of the Eiffel tower, which was created in 1889. Everyone loved it but after 100 years it needed an update so in 1985 they put a few lights around the base. This is the tinkering bit, low risk, cheap and had little impact on people’s affections for the Tower. But in 2003 the bold step was taken put 20,000 LED lights choreographed by computer, all the way up. Expensive, risky but had a transformative impact and Parisians and tourists fell in love with the Tower all over again.
It’s too late for tinkering, and the stakes are too high. What’s your Big Idea?
For more on SAP Ariba’s Procurement with Purpose initiative, check out these resources. And for a video of Pat and other great speakers, head to Procurious.
