- 12
- MAY
- 2010
Group therapy on procurement's most pressing issues
Author: Maggie Slowik - Categories: Best Practice & Benchmarking
There are undoubtedly some categories of spend that many senior figures still file in an in-tray (remember them?) marked uncomfortable, which is why the PIU is running a series of workshops throughout 2010 bringing together category experts from across the procurement world.
These events, which kicked off recently in London with a category workshop on Management Consultancy, utilise an innovative 'active learning' approach, aiming to bring clarity and, over time, a set of best practice approaches to some potentially clouded spend categories.
Each of the workshops will concentrate on a specific indirect sub-category, identified as a key area of interest or savings potential by our members. The fact that these topics have been flagged up as being either highly complex or important dictates that these sessions will provide an incredibly valuable insight into some of procurement's biggest challenges.
By bringing together groups of category experts, led by a project facilitator, we're looking to use the sessions as a means of identifying the key issues affecting a particular area of spend and the interrelationships between these, leading to a range of solutions aimed at tackling the underlying issues that matter most.
By identifying the biggest issues or drivers facing these particular categories, the sessions will aim to address these and demonstrate how the solving of major problems can have a 'trickle down' effect – effectively eliminating the smaller, more trivial concerns that can provide procurement with an ongoing headache, as well as preventing CPOs from better directing their time and efforts elsewhere.
Following on from the workshop idea generation and networking, the group will stay connected after the sessions in order to formulate a longer-term approach to develop, test and implement these solutions. The group will then reconvene later in the year to share both their experiences and the results that their work in this particular area have delivered, leading to the identification of best practice approaches.
In addition to the workshop on Management Consultancy, the PIU will also be hosting further sessions on Facilities Management, IT and Marketing – four categories that, both now and in the future, are throwing up a unique range of issues for procurement to both address and tackle.
We'll be bringing you regular updates from these events, which will be held across Europe, via our blog, starting later this week when we examine some of the discussion areas of our recent Management Consultancy session.
